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TRENTON
- Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal
Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced
that a Mercer County auto body repair shop
owner was sentenced to state prison today
for his role in an auto repair insurance
scam. The auto body repair shop is no longer
in business.
According
to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor John
Kennedy, Robert Buckingham, 55, of Millstone,
was sentenced to three years in state prison
by Superior Court Judge Edward M. Neafsey
in Mercer County. The sentence was based
on Buckingham’s guilty plea to second-degree
conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, a
charge contained in a July 17, 2007 state
grand jury indictment.
In
pleading guilty on March 1, 2010, Buckingham,
the owner/operator of Robert Christopher
Collision, an auto body repair facility
which did business on Kuser Road in Hamilton
Township, admitted that between April 2005
and July 2006, he conspired with employees
of his company to over-bill insurance companies
for the repair of two automobiles. Buckingham
admitted, for example, that he had the frame
of a damaged 2004 Cadillac Escalade repaired
by welding in a section but billed the insurance
company, and was subsequently paid, for
the full replacement of the frame.
In
August 2008, one of Buckingham’s employees,
, of Morganville, pleaded
guilty to theft by deception and was subsequently
sentenced.
An
investigation by the Office of the Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor determined that Buckingham
and his co-defendant billed insurance companies
for auto repair work that they failed to
complete. In addition, the defendants billed
insurance companies for new auto repair
parts when they utilized old parts, and
billed the insurance companies to replace
auto parts when they merely repaired the
damaged auto parts. The defendants enhanced
damage to cars brought to the repair facility
so they could increase the amount of auto
insurance repair claims.
Among the insurance companies to which false
claims were submitted were New Jersey Manufacturers
Insurance Company, Travelers Auto Insurance
Company (formerly known as First Trenton
Indemnity), Selective Insurance Company
and Mercury Insurance Company. Acting Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor Kennedy thanked the insurance
companies for their assistance in this matter.
In settlement of the related asset forfeiture
matter, Robert Christopher Associates, Inc.,
and Robert Buckingham have agreed to pay
a total of $41,000, of which $16,195.31
will be applied to restitution owed by Robert
Buckingham in the related criminal matter.
In addition, $14,804.69 will be forfeited,
and the defendants agreed to pay a civil
administrative penalty of $10,000.
Detective Wendy Berg, Civil Investigator
Frank Crosson, and Deputy Attorneys General
Kristen Harberg, Christine Hoffman, and
Carol Stanton Meier and Former Deputy Attorney
General John J. Higgins were assigned to
the investigation. Deputy Attorney General
Cheryl A. Maccaroni represented the Office
of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the
sentencing. Higgins represented the state
at the guilty plea hearing. Harberg presented
the case to the grand jury. The National
Insurance Crime Bureau assisted with the
investigation.
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