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TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that an Essex County man was sentenced to
state prison today for his role in an automobile
theft and give up ring.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Ronald Bennett, 20, of East Orange,
was sentenced today to seven years in state
prison by Superior Court Judge Jerome M.
St. John in Essex County. He was ordered
to pay restitution in an amount to be determined,
and his driver’s license was suspended
for 10 years. Bennett’s sentence is
pursuant to his May 18 guilty plea before
Judge Joseph V. Isabella to a criminal accusation
which charged him with receiving stolen
property.
As
part of the same investigation, Frazier
M. Gibson, 20, of Montclair, was sentenced
on July 19 to five years in state prison
by Superior Court Judge Nancy Sivelli in
Essex County. Gibson was sentenced pursuant
to his May 24 guilty plea to an accusation
charging him with receiving stolen property
and aggravated assault. Gibson was already
serving a five-year sentence on unrelated
charges at the Mountainview Youth Correctional
Facility in Hunterdon County.
At
his guilty plea hearing, Bennett admitted
that between Sept. 28 and Nov. 1, 2006,
he sold 12 stolen vehicles, including BMWs,
Infinitis, a Jaguar, an Audi and a motorcycle
to a person he believed was interested in
buying the stolen vehicles. The “buyer”
was actually an undercover investigator
with the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor.
Gibson admitted at his plea hearing that
he received stolen property by acting as
a driver for the theft ring. In this capacity,
Gibson took possession of stolen Infinitis,
BMWs, and a Chevrolet Avalanche.
Some
of the cars were give ups. A give up occurs
when the owner of an automobile voluntarily
gives his car to another in order to submit
a phony auto theft insurance claim. The
car is typically chopped for parts or retagged
with a new vehicle identification number
and sold. The stolen and give up vehicles
sold by Bennett were believed to have an
aggregate value of approximately $350,000.
Bennett
and Gibson were arrested by investigators
from the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
on Nov. 1, 2006 with the assistance of the
Essex/Union Auto Theft Task Force.
At the time of the arrest, Gibson attempted
to elude arresting officers and crashed
a stolen vehicle into an unmarked police
vehicle. He was charged with aggravated
assault, among other offenses.
Gibson
was previously sentenced to five years in
prison in March 2007 in Union County, where
he pleaded guilty to charges of eluding
a law enforcement officer in a separate
incident.
State
Investigators Jose Vendas and Johnny Ho
and Deputy Attorney General Richard W. Queen
were assigned to the investigation. Queen
represented the Office of Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor at the sentencings.
“We
will continue to target auto theft rings
with effective investigations and prosecutions,”
said Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown.
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 site 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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