TRENTON
- Acting Attorney General Anne Milgram and
Division of Criminal Justice Director Gregory
A. Paw announced that a Passaic County woman
has been sentenced for falsifying an automobile
insurance application.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Ana Carmona, 55, of Passaic, was
ordered by Superior Court Judge Raymond
A. Reddin of Passaic County to serve five
years probation and to pay more than $4,000
in fines and restitution. The sentenced
followed Carmona’s guilty plea to
a charge of third-degree insurance fraud,
which was contained in a Jan. 4 state grand
jury indictment obtained by the Division
of Criminal Justice - Office of Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor.
At her June 20 plea hearing before Judge
Reddin, Carmona admitted that in December
2003, she went to an insurance agency in
Paterson to apply for an automobile insurance
policy from Clarendon National Insurance
Company. Carmona admitted that she provided
false information to the insurance agent
during the application process. Carmona
was asked whether she had any children who
had drivers’ licenses and who resided
with her at her home. Carmona answered that
she did not. An investigation determined
that, in fact, Carmona’s three sons
lived with her at the time and all had been
licensed. The investigation further revealed
that two of the sons had suspended licenses,
which she also failed to disclose.
Carmona
admitted that she provided the false information
in an attempt to get cheaper automobile
insurance rates. As a result of Carmona’s
misrepresentations, she obtained automobile
insurance for approximately $4,400 less
per year than she would have paid if she
had claimed all of the drivers on the policy.
State
Investigators Luis Cruz and Toni Petreski,
Civil Investigator Raymond Britton and Deputy
Attorney General Robert J. Brass were assigned
to the investigation. Brass represented
the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
at the sentencing.
“Insurance
companies have referred thousands of cases
involving defendants such as this one who
are willing to falsify an automobile insurance
application in order to obtain cheaper rates,”
said Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown. “Anyone
who falsifies an automobile insurance application
should know that New Jersey’s insurance
fraud statute provides tough criminal penalties
for persons convicted of this crime.”
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 at 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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