Kitchen fire insurance fraud scheme never caught on

An investigation into insurance claims on a kitchen fire in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, didn’t pass the smell test.

And now a woman has been indicted on charges that she filed false claims for a kitchen fire that never happened, the Winston-Salem Journal reported Friday.

Sidonique Alexia Edwards was indicted on two counts of insurance fraud, one count of obtaining property by false pretenses and one count of attempted obtaining property by false pretenses, according to the newspaper.

Investigators allege that in 2020 and 2011, Ms. Edwards filed a false claim with State Farm Insurance claiming a kitchen fire at her apartment resulted in $22,994 worth of damaged items.

There was no fire and the documentation she presented to State Farm was fraudulent, according to the newspaper.