Mink lover accused of being a weasel

Samiha Guirguis, 59, of Havertown, faces insurance fraud charges. (Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office)
Samiha Guirguis, 59, of Havertown, faces insurance fraud charges. (Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office)
Posted: June 22, 2012

WITH TEMPERATURES pushing into the mid-90s, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly announced Thursday that she had filed insurance-fraud charges against a Delaware County woman for allegedly submitting a bogus insurance claim "over the loss of her mink coat."

And it wasn't Samiha Guirguis' first fraudulent use of fur, authorities say.

Guirguis, 59, of Havertown, dropped off a mink coat at a storage facility in King of Prussia in 2005 and was provided a receipt showing the coat was worth $1,000, Kelly said. Four years later, she went to retrieve the coat, but allegedly claimed that the coat they gave her wasn't hers — even though her name was monogrammed inside.

Kelly said Guirguis produced an altered receipt from the storage facility claiming it was worth $10,000. Then, she said, Guirguis filed a claim for her supposedly $10,388 coat under her homeowner's policy and denied having made any prior claims in connection with the coat.

But Guirguis, who is charged with forgery, insurance fraud and theft, tried to run a similar scam on another fur-storage facility in 2001, Kelly said. The owner, who told Guirguis that her coat hadn't been switched for another, said he later learned that Guirguis had complained to the state Attorney General's Office.

Contact William Bender at 215-854-5255 or benderw@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @wbender99.

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