| TRENTON
- Attorney General Stuart Rabner and Division
of Criminal Justice Director Gregory A.
Paw announced that a Bayonne woman was sentenced
today for submitting false personal injury
claims under an auto insurance policy.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Florentina Mauricio, 38, of Bayonne,
was sentenced to two years probation by
Superior Court Judge Salem V. Ahto in Morris
County. The judge also ordered her to pay
a $5,000 civil insurance fraud fine. Mauricio
was sentenced pursuant to her Oct. 17 guilty
plea to third-degree health care claims
fraud.
Mauricio
admitted that she falsely claimed to have
been injured when the van she was driving
broke down in the left lane of the New Jersey
Turnpike and was struck from behind by another
vehicle on Nov. 22, 2003. In reality, she
was not in the van when it was hit and was
not injured. Mauricio sought medical treatment
for her purported injuries and submitted
$3,015 in bills for 23 visits to a chiropractor
and $624 in bills for x-rays to First Trenton
Indemnity Company. None of the bills were
paid by the insurance company.
State
Investigator Johnny Ho, Civil Investigator
Shama Persons and Deputy Attorney General
Jacqueline Smith handled the case.
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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