Woodbury woman given $8,000 fine in insurance fraud case

A prison sentence was stayed, but more than $8,000 in fines were not as part of a sentence for a Woodbury woman convicted of insurance fraud.

A 13-month prison sentence was stayed for five years for Cheryl Ann Tchida. The 50-year-old pleaded guilty in February to one count of insurance fraud, a felony.

Tenth Judicial District Court Judge Richard Ilkka ordered Tchida to pay $8,041 in restitution to a collection firm.

Prosecutors alleged that Tchida tried bilking Farmers Insurance Co. out of claims she said resulted from a 2010 wind and hail storm. A Farmers investigator became suspicious of the claims and turned over information to Woodbury police.

Police said Tchida’s claims that damage to a $3,500 swing set and a $2,300 gas grill had been falsified.

The charges came less than a year after Tchida was convicted of a separate insurance fraud case. In that instance, she was sentenced to 40 days in jail for one count of felony insurance fraud stemming from a January 2010 case. In that case, Tchida had reported a $5,000 TV set, $10,000 in tools and $6,500 in cash were stolen in a burglary. The missing TV was later found stashed in a room above Tchida’s garage; family members told police no burglary had actually occurred.

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