The Insurance Council of British Columbia is sanctioning Umber (Amber) Zahra Gilani, fining Gilani $7,500 plus investigation costs and throwing her out of the industry for five years. The sanctions come after Gilani admitted to submitting 47 registered massage therapist (RMT) claims in the names of her different family members. The claims resulted in a payout of $5,367.50 to Gilani over a 12-month period between September 2022 and September 2023.
Gilani’s agency fired her after the insurer reported the claims to the agency. Although the insurer asked the agent to provide receipts, Gilani first said a lot of places do not give receipts, then stated the massage therapist she went to wasn’t registered. She then blamed her husband, saying he inadvertently made the submissions while looking for the correct service provider.
Later, Gilani provided 47 receipts from a business identified as SB, which does not offer registered massage services. The receipts noted that all services were paid for with cash and prices did not match any prices listed on the company’s website. No tax was noted on the receipts.
“The licensee denied knowing the owner of SB,” the intended decision in Gilani’s case states. When investigators contacted the business owner, they confirmed that no one from Gilani’s family attended for massage services. An investigator’s land title search also revealed that Gilani owned 25 per cent of the SB property.
Admitted to creating false receipts
Through legal counsel Gilani later admitted that no one in her family received services. She also admitted to submitting all of the claims herself and creating the false receipts. Although she promised to repay the insurer, at the time of the investigation this had not occurred – an aggravating factor in the case, they say. Further, Gilani is being sanctioned for not disclosing to council that she’d been terminated for conduct that would affect her suitability to hold a license.
First licensed in June 2017 as a general insurance agent, the currently inactive agent was also ordered to complete an ethics course prior to re-registration in February 2030. She was also assessed the council’s investigation costs in the amount of $2,593.75.
“The licensee knew the process for making a claim and knowingly made 47 fraudulent claims at the maximum rate for massage therapy. It was troubling to council that the licensee made 47 fraudulent claims over the course of one year,” the intended decision states. “Council found the continuous and ongoing nature of this conduct to be an aggravating factor.”
