Former employee accuses Poway auto dealership of insurance fraud [North County Times, Escondido, Calif.]

Aug. 26--A former Toyota of Poway employee has asked the district attorney's office to investigate his claim that the dealership and its workers compensation insurer committed insurance fraud when they allegedly denied that mold at the business made him sick.

The Toyota dealership is the same one preparing to move from the north side of Poway Road to the south side as part of a relocation deal that will cost the city's redevelopment agency $3 million up front.

The move, which will make room for a store that the Lowe's home improvement chain wants to build, is designed to help rejuvenate the city's ailing auto district.

Toyota of Poway owner Vincent Castro has publicly acknowledged his business had mold in one of its buildings but says the problem was fixed.

Timothy Hack, who was the dealership's used-car sales manager from October 2008 to March 2010, says the mold made him sick, however.

He and three other former Toyota of Poway employees with similar claims spent about an hour Wednesday telling their stories to investigators with the DA office's insurance fraud division. Hack said he is acting as "the public voice" for the group, which left the investigators with copies of inspection reports, photos and other materials that allegedly back up their claims.

Hack, 38, said afterward that he initially did not know why he started getting rashes, developed a severe staph infection, kept getting colds that would not go away and experienced other health problems after he began working at the dealership.

After mold was discovered earlier this year in the building he worked in, Hack said, he showed photos of the problem to his doctor, who diagnosed Hack as suffering from mold exposure.

A workers' compensation claim Hack filed to get medical treatment under that program was denied, however, after a doctor with the program found that his health issues were unrelated to the mold, Hack said.

The dealership then tried to get him to apply for compensation under a federal Family Medical Leave Act program and fired him when he refused to do so on principle, said Hack, who is now getting state disability payments.

"They're shirking their responsibilities at taxpayers' expense," Hack said. "The state shouldn't pay when it's clearly a workers comp issue."

Castro, who hired his own inspector, said Wednesday that a leaky roof caused the mold, which he said was limited to an unused back room. The problem has since been resolved, he said.

"A licensed (mold) remediation company came and fixed it," Castro said. "Employees who worked in the building were evacuated until it was given a clean bill of health. They've been back in since the end of April."

He said he could not comment on Hack or the insurance fraud claim, citing the possibility of future litigation.

City officials have said they knew about the mold but also believe it has been eliminated.

Steve Walker, a spokesman in the DA's office said its investigators would review the materials Hack and the other former employees dropped off before deciding whether to look into the matter further.

Call staff writer Andrea Moss at 760-739-6654.

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