Fraud for Concert Tickets Lands Broward County Sheriff's Deputy and Co-Conspirator in Jail
6/23/2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 23, 2010
CONTACT: Kevin Cate or Jennifer Hirst, 850-413-2842
TALLAHASSEE – Florida CFO Alex Sink today announced the arrest of Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Barber, 43, and Sharyn Iaboni, 43, a past neighbor of Barber, on three felony counts for creating a fraudulent accident report and insurance forms, for the purpose of receiving reimbursement for concert tickets. Barber and Iaboni were booked into the Palm Beach County Jail this afternoon and are each being held on $15,000 bond; if convicted, each could face up to 15 years behind bars.
With assistance from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) and the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Unit, Division of Insurance Fraud (DIF) detectives were able to determine that Deputy Barber created a false State of Florida accident report using a real BCSO case number that had no relevance to the alleged accident. The fraudulent document detailed an automobile accident between two drivers - Barber’s wife, Wendy Barber, and Sharyn Iaboni. The report also stated that Wendy Barber was at fault and was given a traffic citation (ticket) for the accident. Through investigative efforts, DIF detectives were able to identify that Deputy Barber was not working the day the accident report was created nor did the accident ever occur.
Shawn Barber came up with the idea to create a fictitious accident report for insurance purposes when the two couples, Barbers and Iabonis, found out at the last minute they were not going to be able to attend a concert that Sharyn Iaboni had already paid for with a credit card. Iaboni agreed to go along with the scam and filed fraudulent insurance forms with her credit card insurance company. Iaboni received full reimbursement for the $626.05 spent on the concert tickets.
The Division of Insurance Fraud made more than 930 insurance fraud-related arrests in the last fiscal year, and investigates various forms of insurance fraud, including health, life, auto, property and workers’ compensation insurance. Depending on the estimated loss amount, DIF will pay up to $25,000 for information directly leading to an arrest and conviction. Anyone with information about this or any other suspected insurance fraud is asked to call CFO Sink’s Fraud Fighters Hotline at 1-800-378-0445 or visit to
www.MyFloridaCFO.com/fraud.