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TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Acting
Criminal Justice Director Deborah Gramiccioni
announced that a Cumberland County man has
been sentenced for submitting a phony automobile
insurance claim.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, David Berry, 43, of Millville, was
sentenced yesterday by Superior Court Judge
Michael R. Connor in Atlantic County to
serve five years probation and to pay a
$2,500 civil insurance fraud fine. Berry
was sentenced pursuant to his May 22 guilty
plea to third-degree theft by deception,
a charge contained in a Feb. 28 Atlantic
County grand jury indictment.
In
pleading guilty, Berry admitted that in
the fall of 2005, he falsely reported to
the Atlantic City Police Department that
his 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 truck had been stolen.
Berry subsequently submitted a phony automobile
insurance theft claim to High Point Insurance
Company. Berry admitted that he knew that
the car had been parked in a no parking
zone and had been towed. After learning
that the car was actually at the towing
lot, High Point denied the claim and referred
the matter to the Office of Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor for investigation.
Detective George Meyers Jr., Civil Investigator
Frank Crosson, and Deputy Attorney General
Candy Cure were assigned to the investigation.
Cure represented the state at the sentencing.
This
case was referred to OIFP by the Special
Investigative Unit of the High Point Insurance
Company, which initially uncovered the fraud
and assisted OIFP in the investigation.
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown thanked
High Point for their assistance in this
matter.
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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