Essex woman indicted for theft, insurance fraud

Attorney General Anthony G. Brown recently announced the indictment of a former Maryland state employee stemming from two instances involving alleged theft and insurance fraud.

Essex resident Shanell Angelia West was allegedly involved in a theft scheme related to her former employment at the Maryland Department of Labor in the first criminal case, officials said.

The 45-year-old is charged with theft scheme valued between $1,500 and $25,000, counterfeiting of private instruments and documents, issuing of counterfeit private instruments and documents, and misconduct in office.

The charges stem from a scheme in which West, a former clerk at the Maryland Department of Labor, allegedly abused her position to steal funds from state licensees.

West, whose duties included processing business licensing fees and fine payments to various state licensing boards, kept or made copies of checks payable to the state, altered them, and then deposited them into personal bank accounts, authorities said.

Following her termination from the Department of Labor, West allegedly continued to deposit forged versions of checks that she had obtained while she was employed with the agency.

In the second case, West allegedly filed a fraudulent insurance claim involving her former job with the Maryland Department of Labor. She is charged with fraudulent insurance acts of $300 or more, identity fraud of $1,500 or more and forgery, officials confirmed.

The charges stem from an insurance claim that West filed for wages she purportedly lost from her state employment after missing work from injuries sustained in a car accident. West claimed that she missed more than two weeks of work in June and July 2023, when, in fact, she had been terminated by the Department of Labor in 2022.

To corroborate her claim, she purportedly submitted a document to her insurer that had a forged signature of a former colleague.

West’s cases will be heard in Baltimore County Circuit Court, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office. Officials have not yet publicly released a date for the defendant’s hearing.