February 26, 10

NEWS / Atlantic County Woman Sentenced to State Prison for Disability Insurance Fraud

TRENTON Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Division of Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that a Mays Landing woman was sentenced today to state prison for illegally collecting more than $4,000 by submitting fraudulent disability insurance claims.

According to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza Dagli, Da’Lynn White, 31, of Mays Landing, was sentenced to five years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Michael Donio in Atlantic County. White was also ordered to pay $4,357 in restitution. The sentence is based on White’s guilty plea to insurance fraud, a charge contained in a May 13, 2009 indictment.

Judge Donio also sentenced White to five years in state prison based on her Aug. 17, 2009 guilty plea to two counts of identity theft brought by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office. The sentences will run concurrently.

In pleading guilty on Aug. 17 to the charge brought by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, White admitted that between March 15 and June 19, 2005, she fraudulently collected $4,357 from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development by submitting false disability claim forms. White gave the false impression that she and a co-worker were disabled and under the care of two doctors. An investigation determined that White forged the two doctors’ names on the claim forms in support of the false disability claims. White admitted that she reported to the labor department that she was pregnant when, in fact, she was not. White also admitted that she falsely claimed her co-worker was injured in an accident on his way to work.

In pleading guilty to the charges brought by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, White admitted that she unlawfully obtained bank information of at least seven victims, and used the information to fraudulently obtain duplicate ATM and other bank cards. White admitted that she used the fraudulent cards to obtain cash and other items from various retail stores within Atlantic County.

Detective Weldon Powell and Deputy Attorneys General Susan Kase and Steven Farman were assigned to the investigation. Deputy Attorney General Farman represented the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing hearing. Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Dagli thanked the Department of Labor and Workforce Development for its assistance. Assistant Prosecutors Curtis Baker and Diane Ruberton prosecuted the defendant for the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases10/pr20100225b.html