Ithaca, N.Y. — An Ithaca woman falsely billed her home healthcare company for over 2,500 hours of work she did not do in 2012, 2013 and 2014, according to Ithaca police records filed in court.
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Irene Dixon, 33, of Ithaca, has been charged with third-degree larceny, a felony, and accused of taking over $30,000 from Classen Home Health Associates by submitting fraudulent time sheets. Dixon worked there as a caregiver, according to court documents.
The arrest was announced on Wednesday. Documents filed in Ithaca City Court show that Dixon’s thefts were first discovered when a worker at the company realized that two caregivers had listed overlapping hours for the same client.
After learning about the discrepancy, the Classen staff member began comparing Dixon’s time sheets to the official company log of hours worked.
“Beginning with the most recent archived time sheets available and working my way back, I found multiple discrepancies between hours claimed on time sheets and those (on the official company log),” the staff member said.
“I began printing as many time sheets for Irene Dixon as I could and continued until I was certain something was wrong.”
Two members of Classen met the next morning — Thursday, October 30, 2014. At around 11 a.m., Dixon “began exhibiting what I thought to be nervous behavior, loudly going up and down the hallway,” the sworn affidavit states.
“When my door was closed, Irene Dixon abruptly entered my office scanning my desk. The third time this happened she asked what I was doing with my door closed. I replied, ‘auditing.’ She continued, ‘Auditing what?,’” court documents state.
The Classen staff member continued to investigate the discrepancies, going back to April 2012, and found that Dixon sometimes just tacked on a few hours to the beginning or end of her shift, but at other times added much more time, according to police records.