“Workers’ compensation fraud is not a victimless crime.  It puts workers at risk and creates an unlevel playing field for competing businesses that are honest in their reporting to State Compensation Insurance Fund.”

CSLEA  President Alan Barcelona

SAN DIEGO – On April 2, 2025, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan announced that plumbing contractor Daniela G. Birdwell, 41, owner of GPS Plumbing, has been ordered to pay $1,030,062 in restitution to the State Compensation Insurance Fund as part of a workers’ compensation fraud prosecution.

Birdwell pleaded guilty to one count of Insurance Code Section 11880(a) – workers’ compensation insurance premium fraud and was also sentenced to two years of formal felony probation, 320 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $10,000 per month towards restitution. 

The State Fund provided workers’ compensation insurance coverage to GPS Plumbing from June 2016 through May 2021. The fraud was first discovered when a State Fund special investigation unit noticed a vast difference between wages the company reported to the Employment Development Department (EDD) and wages reported to the State Fund during policy audits. The State Fund then conducted an audit of GPS Plumbing’s workers’ compensation records which uncovered millions of dollars in unreported payroll. The State Fund’s Special Investigation Unit submitted a report of its suspected fraud case to the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and the Department of Insurance for investigation. 

The District Attorney’s Office press release states that insurance fraud costs U.S. consumers an estimated $80 to $90 billion per year. In California, it’s a $15 billion-a-year problem. It’s the second-largest economic crime in America, exceeded only by tax evasion.