Man charged with collecting thousands after faking broken tooth

January 22, 2009 07:01 PM Email| Comments (13)| Text size – +

By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff

Tod Schaffer of Brookline broke his tooth when he chomped into a piece of plastic in his salad at a Boston restaurant in October 2002. That much is true, according to the state attorney general's office.

It's what he allegedly did after getting a settlement that led to his indictment in Suffolk Superior Court today.

The attorney general's office said the 42-year-old falsified his dentist's note and submitted it to the insurers for 21 other restaurants in Greater Boston, claiming the injury occurred there when he chomped on rocks, plastics or glass in meals. He is accused of using the fake notes to win $36,000 in payouts.

"He changed the date, the injury and the place and sent that to the restaurant insurance company," said Harry Pierre, a spokesman for the Attorney General's office. "And he was subsequently paid out 10 times."

Schaffer will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Feb. 24. He could not be reached today. A phone number listed for him in Brookline had been disconnected. Schaffer has been charged with 19 counts of insurance fraud, 10 counts of larceny over $250 and 11 counts of attempted larceny over $250.

An investigator at Great American Insurance Company noticed the similarity of the claims and reported them to the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts, an organization funded by the insurance industry to investigate claims. A spokeswoman at Great American Insurance Company, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, did not return phone calls.

Pierre said Schaffer withdrew his claims at nine restaurants and was denied payment at two others.

Pierre did not disclose the name of the restaurants involved, saying only that many are part of a "major chain."