TRENTON - Attorney General Zulima V. Farber and Division of Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced that a Staten Island man pled guilty for his role in an auto theft scam.

According to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown, Lukasz Zalewski, 30, of Staten Island, N.Y., pled guilty yesterday afternoon before Superior Court Judge Scott J. Moynihan in Union County to an accusation charging him with second-degree receiving stolen property. Under the plea agreement with the state, he faces a sentence of up to four years in prison.

Zalewski admitted that in June 2002, in Cranford, N.J., he had possession of seven vehicles that he knew were stolen: a 2002 Jeep Limited, a 2001 BMW 330, a 2001 Audi S4, a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee, a 2002 GMC Denali, and two 2002 Cadillac Escalades. Zalewski admitted that he possessed the automobiles in order to re-tag them with altered vehicle identification numbers or chop them into parts.

The investigation was handled by State Investigators Jarek Pyrzanowski and Jeffrey Lorman and Deputy Attorney General Michael A. Monahan, with assistance from the Cranford Police Department. Monahan represented the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the guilty plea hearings.

“Frequently insurance fraud investigations lead to evidence of stolen automobiles and alteration of automobile VINs,” said Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown. “This office will continue to follow evidence of fraud and theft wherever it leads.”

Prosecutor Brown noted that some important cases have begun with anonymous tips from the public. People who are concerned about insurance cheating and have any information about a fraud can report it anonymously by calling our toll-free hotline at 1-877-55-FRAUD, or visit our Web site at www.NJInsuranceFraud.org. State regulations permit an award to be paid to an eligible person who provides information that leads to an arrest, prosecution and conviction for insurance fraud.

The Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was established by the Automobile Insurance Cost Reduction Act of 1998 (AICRA). The Office is the centralized state agency that investigates and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud. Criminal convictions for insurance fraud can result in fines and imprisonment, while civil penalties can include substantial fines and referral for revocation or suspension of professional licenses.