A Spanish woman who had been claiming disability pension for an inability to speak following a work-related incident 16 years ago has been exposed as a fraud by a private detective.
In 2003, a woman working at a supermarket in Andalucia, Spain, was attacked by a customer. Following the traumatic incident, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and the loss of her ability to speak. After reviewing her case, Social Security granted the woman a permanent disability pension, but because this was a work-related incident, the insurance company was deemed responsible for the costs. Years later, as per regular procedure, the insurance company reviewed her case and found some irregularities, which prompted further investigation. A few years ago, it hired a private detective who discovered that the woman spoke normally but continued to cash her disability payments.
Photo: Dari Dorofeeva/Unsplash
In 2019, sixteen years after the incident that had caused the woman’s speech impairment, the insurance company responsible for paying her disability benefits started reviewing her medical records and noticed that none of the specialists she had visited since 2009 (an ophthalmologist, an orthopedist, and a dermatologist) had recorded her inability to speak in their reports. This was considered unusual, so they had a team of doctors reevaluate the woman’s condition, and at least one psychiatrist reported possible signs of fraud.
One medical expert’s suspicion wasn’t enough to open a case against the woman, so the insurance company hired a private detective to follow the woman around and gather more evidence. After a few weeks, the private eye reported that “the mute woman speaks normally on the street, chats with other mothers outside the school gates, uses her cell phone without any problems, and attends Zumba classes.”
To prove without a shadow of a doubt that the woman could speak, the private detective approached her on the street one day and asked her for directions on how to reach a local department store. She fell right into his trap, eloquently explaining in perfectly articulated Spanish how to reach the store, not knowing that she was being recorded. With this final piece of evidence, the insurance company took legal action to prove that it was no longer responsible for providing disability benefits.
Photo: sq lim/Unsplash
In January, The High Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) ruled in favor of the insurance company, arguing that the evidence presented in court was valid and that it no longer needed to pay the woman disability benefits. It also rejected the woman’s appeal to have the detective’s recording rejected by the court because it constituted a “clear violation of her constitutional rights .”
“A simulation of pseudomutism has been established, or at least a very favorable progression or evolution of such symptoms, as the inhibited symptoms have disappeared,” the Court ruling read.
Following the January verdict, a new case has been opened against the woman to establish the fine she will need to pay for unlawfully collecting benefits for a non-existent condition. The insurance company will also most likely sue the woman to reclaim the benefits paid for 16 years.
