Dead person on payroll? Or double-dipping at its worst
September 29, 2008 by Fred HosierPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, That's how they do it in ______
As Election Day approaches, stories will be told about how many dead people have been able to vote over the years. That’s one thing; it’s quite another when a company found out it had a dead person on its payroll.
A British man has pleaded guilty to faking his own death to receive a $600,000 life insurance payment.
That’s bad enough. But Ahmad Akhtary of Gloucester didn’t try too hard to make it really appear that he was dead — he continued to work and pay taxes in his own name.
Akhtary obtained a fake death certificate from Afghanistan saying he died in an accident in that country. Then, he and his wife conspired to use the fake document to get the insurance payout, according to the newspaper, The Sun. Both pleaded guilty to those charges.
Each was sentenced to a suspended prison term of nine months and were ordered to complete 40 hours of community service work.
Fortunately for the insurance company, the payment was never made to Akhtary’s wife. Authorities uncovered his scam when the supposedly dead man made appointments to see his doctor.
Tags: dead people, double dipping, payroll
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 am
What does this have to do with HR matters? Was the life insurance a company-paid program and if so, where was the company administrator handliong this payout? Sounds like a criminal matter to me. Nine months suspended and communiuty work is ridiculous. I’d deport both of them back to Afghanastan.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:52 am
Larry-here is some HR advise-quit reading these emails-which I would almost BET are NOT part of your job description and get back to your REAL work!!!
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:54 am
If you had a dead person on your payroll, it’d certainly be an HR matter.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
It is an HR matter - but reading these comments is not an HR function.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Dead employees on a payroll are not as rare as one would expect. The State of New Hampshire had me expired for two years, while, I was employed by James River Corporation. I discovered the error as a result of a traffic violation. The real surprise came when I had to prove not only who I was but the fact that I was very much alive - it took two months! The State mandated that I file for a drivers license before I got behind the wheel again, the were kind enough to issue a temporary drivers license while the DOV records were corrected. Dead people apparently are not allowed to drive in the State of New Hampshire…