Alleged fraud could mean decades in prison for pair
A pair of individuals could be facing decades behind bars for allegedly stealing from local taxpayers.
A Union County Grand jury has indicted Michael D. Purdin and Jessica Jane Coburn on allegations of defrauding the Union County Department of Job and Family Services in unrelated incidents.
“These are taxpayer funds,” Union County Prosecutor Dave Phillips said. “These are funds available for people who genuinely need help and deserve these benefits. People who defraud the system reduce the benefits available for people who truly need them and they are ripping off the taxpayers.”
Coburn, 40, of 2420 E. Dublin–Granville Road, Columbus, is charged with eight counts of tampering with records and one count of grand theft.
“This case is a little out of the ordinary for us in that she was going back and forth between Ohio and Florida and getting benefits in both,” Assistant Union County Prosecutor Melissa Chase said.
Chase said Coburn was allegedly living in Ohio with her three children and had applied for food assistance and Medicaid benefits. Coburn was granted the benefits but at some point she moved to Florida and applied for the same benefits there.
Chase said Coburn would live for six months in Florida then six months in Ohio.
“They were just moving back and forth,” Chase said.
She added that the children were enrolled in Ohio’s online schooling program, “so there was not real accountability there.”
According to court documents, between October 20014 and May 2016, Coburn received approximately $21,900 in benefits in Ohio and about $15,500 in benefits from Florida.
Chase said the states did not really communicate to catch fraud. She said Detective Kelly Nawman with the Union County Sheriff’s Office and DJFS investigator Sara Elsmore determined something wasn’t right as they went through the woman’s paperwork.
“It was our local agency that discovered it,” Chase said.
If convicted, Coburn could face more than 41 years in the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
Purdin, 41, of 11480 E.S. 36 East, Lot 3., Marysville, is charged with 14 counts of tampering with records, eight counts of grand theft and one count each of forgery and identification fraud. If convicted on all charges, Purdin could face as many as 85 years in prison.
“He had quite a number of alleged acts that constituted the crimes,” Chase said.
She explained that Purdin allegedly wrote a series of letters to the Union County Department of Job and Family Services. In one letter he wrote that his grandson lived with him and needed assistance. Purdin allegedly signed his daughter’s name to the letter.
“The grandson didn’t live with him in that household,” Chase said. “He had been living with his mother all along.”
In another letter, Purdin allegedly used a company logo to create letterhead and then signed a fictitious employee’s name to a falsified job offer. Purdin was applying for one-time emergency funds above the food and welfare assistance he was already receiving, but needed to prove he had a source of future income to be eligible.
“He wrote the job offer to himself,” Chase said. “The company existed, but the person who allegedly signed it did not and they didn’t know anything about the offer.”
The assistant prosecutor said Purdin on one occasion went to officials at a local mobile home park and represented himself as an unemployment compensation officer, telling officials at the park that Purdin had been granted housing benefits, “so they would basically rent a lot and trailer to him.”
Chase said that during the time Purdin received benefits, he was required to complete weekly paperwork detailing his work and pay.
“For a lengthy period of time he routinely grossly under represented, allegedly, the income he was receiving,” Chase said.
She said that through his alleged fraud, Purdin received about $14,000 in benefits for which he was not eligible.
In a separate indictment, Purdin is charged with one count of passing bad checks. According to court documents, in November 2016, Purdin wrote a $1,200 check to a property management company. Court documents allege Purdin knew the check was not valid when he wrote it.