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TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
today that an Atlantic County man has been
sentenced for issuing a phony certificate
of insurance.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Rueben Stewart, 47, of Mays Landing,
was ordered by Superior Court Judge Michael
R. Connor in Atlantic County to serve five
years probation. Stewart was sentenced pursuant
to his March 31, 2005 guilty plea to fourth-degree
forgery. Stewart failed to appear on his
original sentencing date of May 13, 2005,
and was arrested on Aug. 27 on a bench warrant
issued by Judge Connor. The judge noted
that Stewart spent a total of 85 days in
the county jail in connection with the charge.
In
pleading guilty, Stewart admitted that between
March 28, 2002 and June 11, 2003, while
working as a concrete contractor at S. R.
Construction in Mays Landing, he issued
a phony Certificate of Insurance to another
company known as Contemporary Environmental
Management of New York. Several years prior,
the certificate of insurance had been properly
issued by Boyarin Hourigan Blundell Insurance
Agency of Toms River, Ocean County. Stewart
admitted that he altered the certificate
and gave it to Contemporary Environmental
Management.
State Investigator Scott Caponi, and Deputy
Attorney General Nicole Rizzolo were assigned
to the investigation. Rizzolo represented
the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
at the sentencing.
“Frequently,
companies seeking to do business will falsify
Certificates of Insurance in order to avoid
paying premiums,” Fraud Prosecutor
Brown said. “This increases the risk
to New Jersey citizens because the company’s
business operations are not backed by the
proper insurance coverage. This office will
continue to investigate and prosecute this
type of 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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