By Kevin Deutsch
A Coconut Creek woman has been charged with welfare fraud for failing to tell the state she was gainfully employed while collecting benefits, court records show.
Christina Leffew, 35, of 3375 NW 47th Ave., “fraudulently misrepresented circumstances which would affect her eligibility for public assistance [by failing] to report to the Florida Department of Children and Families her gainful employment by Fred Land Fulmer, [an attorney],” from Sept. 2018 to Feb. 2020, according to an arrest affidavit.
Leffew received $3,787 in food assistance program benefits during that period, as well as $1,822 in Medicaid benefits, records show.
“She was not legally entitled” to the benefits due to her employment with Fulmer, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer, investigators wrote.
The welfare fraud charge was filed against Leffew in 2021, and a warrant was issued, leading to her arrest during a traffic stop in Margate on Aug. 23 for driving 24 miles per hour in a 15-mile-per-hour school zone, the affidavit states.
Leffew was booked into the Broward Main Jail and released on a $1,000 bond.
The welfare fraud case was investigated by the state Department of Financial Services Division of Public Assistance Fraud, records show.
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