Brodheadsville man charged with insurance fraud

March 06--The Northeastern Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Task Force arrested a Brodheadsville man for insurance fraud and forgery.

Herbert McKingley, 35, turned himself in to Lackawanna officials on March 1.

The arrest is the result of an investigation into McKingley's company, Service Boss International, Inc., a Dalton residential and commercial cleaning and janitorial service.

According to the task force, Service Boss entered into a contract to provide janitorial and other services for Scranton Preparatory School on Nov. 1, 2013. McKingley provided an Acord certificate of liability insurance to Prep's plant administrator, which showed that the company had an active workers compensation insurance policy for the 12 months ending July 1, 2014.

A Service Boss employee was subsequently injured while working at Scranton Prep, and McKingley covered the employee's workers compensation expenses out-of-pocket. When Prep became aware of this, it requested proof of workers compensation insurance from McKingley. He again provided an Acord certificate of insurance, which indicated that Service Boss had an active workers compensation insurance policy for the 12-month period ending July 1, 2016.

Two more Service Boss employees suffered injuries in Aug. 2015 while working at Prep. Their claims for workers compensation benefits were denied because Service Boss lacked workers compensation insurance coverage as required by the Workers Compensation Act.

An investigation revealed that the two Acord certificates presented to Prep by McKingley were forged.

The task force charged McKingley with two counts of insurance fraud, two counts of forgery and two counts of failure to comply with the Workers Compensation Act.

McKingley was arraigned at Lackawanna County Central Court before Magisterial District Judge Terrance Gallagher on March 1. He was released on $5000.00 bail, unsecured. McKingley was released from custody on $5,000 unsecured bail.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 7.

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