A mother and daughter duo from California have talked themselves into the center of a fraud investigation and now face charges in connection with a car fire.
Henrietta Brice, 53, was pulled over on December 29, 2009 while driving her 2004 Buick Rendezvous. According to the deputy that stopped her, Brice essentially let him know that he wouldn't catch her driving that car anymore because she was going to call her insurance company to get herself a new car.
As it turns out, she made good on that statement. Brice was on the phone with her insurance company, Unitrin Direct, on December 31 because her car had been found abandoned and burning in a field the day before.
Brice told the insurance company that her car had been stolen and set on fire, but it didn't take much investigative savvy to figure out that those claims were false. As if the revealing rendezvous with the deputy wasn't proof enough of her guilt, Brice's gabby tendencies continued to be a real gift to investigators.
Her statements about the date and time that she last drove her vehicle conflicted with the time the vehicle was found to have burned. She added more to her story, claiming that she had a flat tire the night before her vehicle was abandoned, but her cell phone was dead, so she was unable to call for assistance.
Henrietta's story fell as flat as that tire allegedly did when her daughter's statements were taken. Larissa Brice, 24, told police that her mother called her to discuss rides to the location where the car was abandoned. While that statement was not substantiated by a check of phone records, it proved that there was a plan in place, and that the daughter was aware of, if not involved in, the fraud.
Both mother and daughter were arraigned on January 12, 2011, in San Joaquin County Superior Court. Larissa was booked on two counts of insurance fraud and faces fines of up to $100,000, and five years in prison. Not to be outdone by her daughter, Henrietta racked up four felony counts, including two counts of insurance fraud, one count of arson, and one count of grand theft. She could be fined up to $200,000, and sentenced five years in prison, which might finally shut her up.
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