| TRENTON - Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that an Ocean County woman has pleaded guilty to forging and cashing blank checks that she stole from a home health aide patient.
Yvette Bullard-Tebetts, 44, of Toms River, pleaded guilty yesterday (July 2) before Superior Court Judge Wendell Daniels in Ocean County to two counts of third-degree theft by deception and three counts of third-degree uttering a forged instrument. The charges were contained in a state grand jury indictment that was unsealed on Nov. 16, 2011.
Judge Daniels scheduled sentencing for Sept. 7. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Bullard-Tebetts be sentenced to 364 days in the county jail as a condition of probation. The State will seek full restitution in the amount of $144,950.
In pleading guilty, Bullard-Tebetts admitted that, while she was employed by a home health aide patient, she stole three blank checks which she forged and cashed at branches of Bank of America and PNC Bank. The checks totaled $144,950. An investigation by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor determined that Bullard-Tebetts used the money for her personal use, including spending the money in Atlantic City casinos, and on furniture, travel, clothing, jewelry and an automobile. The investigation determined that she also used the money to pay for a long-term lease on an apartment.
Bullard-Tebetts was recently returned from Florida to New Jersey by way of a Governor’s Warrant executed by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi noted that Deputy Attorney General Gina M. Galante and Detectives Anthony Iannice and Kylie Mattis were assigned to the case. ### |
