| TRENTON
- Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that a Union County woman was sentenced
today for stealing over $52,900 in bail
bond monies.
According to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
Greta Gooden Brown, Mercedes Lastra, 32,
of Elizabeth, was sentenced by Superior
Court Judge Frederick P. DeVesa in Middlesex
County to five years probation conditioned
on her paying $52,930 in restitution to
Blaze Bail Bonds. Lastra pleaded guilty
on Sept. 21 to a charge of third-degree
theft by failure to make required disposition
of property received.
Lastra admitted that between September 2004
and January 2005, while employed as a licensed
bond agent for Blaze Bail Bonds in Perth
Amboy, she stole approximately $52,930 that
she received as premiums for bail bonds
for 15 criminal defendants. An investigation
determined that Lastra issued phony bail
bonds for the defendants by taking blank
bail bonds and completing them as if they
were paid for and properly issued.
State
Investigator Robert Stemmer and Supervising
Deputy Attorney General Lewis J. Korngut
handled the case.
Prosecutor
Brown noted that some important cases have
started with anonymous tips. People who
are concerned about insurance cheating and
have information about a fraud can report
it anonymously by calling the toll-free
hotline 1-877-55-FRAUD
or visiting the Web 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 Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance
Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is
the centralized state agency that investigates
and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance
fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.
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