Mother To Be Arraigned For Falsely Claiming Son Was hit By County Bus In Insurance Fraud Scam

SANTA ANA - A mother will be arraigned tomorrow on charges of filing fraudulent insurance claims after pretending that her son was hit by a County bus. Leila Anne Rabbani, 50, Lake Forest, is charged with eight felony counts of insurance fraud and faces a maximum sentence of five years in state prison if convicted. Rabbani is expected to be arraigned tomorrow, Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 8:30 a.m. in Department C-55, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.

On December 21, 2004, Rabbani is accused of submitting a Claim for Damage to the Orange County Transit Authority (OCTA) claiming that her son, then 16-years-old, had been hit by an OCTA bus. The defendant is accused of filing a fraudulent insurance claim by falsely stating that her son had been hit by a bus in Lake Forest in October 2004 while trying to remove his bike from the front rack. She is accused of claiming that her son suffered physical injuries and sustained damage to his bicycle and clothes.  

Pictures of damage to a bike and clothes were submitted to the OCTA under the pretense that they were photographs from the October 2004 incident with the bus, when in fact the pictures were from a 2003 claim in which her son was hit by a car. On April 28, 2005, Rabbani is accused of lying to a risk management officer with the OCTA by falsely stating that her son had missed his high school wresting championship due to his injuries. Even though her son had not been to see a doctor, Rabbani is accused of lying that he had made four or five doctor's visits as a result of being hit by the bus.

On May 2, 2005, Rabbani, who worked as an office manager at a Laguna Niguel clinic called South County Family Medical, is accused of creating false medical records indicating that her son had been to see the doctor to support her false insurance claim. On May 12, 2005, Rabbani is accused of submitting these falsified doctor's records to the OCTA.   

Deputy District Attorney Andrea Burke of the Insurance Fraud Unit is prosecuting this case.