A Maryland mechanic who filed false claims for automobile repairs and was paid more than $223,000 by insurers will have to spend at least a few years behind bars after he was sentenced this week.
Kenneth Wayne Collins, 36, was a mechanic at a Bel Air, Maryland, car dealership in 2018 and used information about customers to file more than 260 claims for repairs covered by vehicle service contracts, the Maryland attorney general said in a statement Monday. Zurich NA, Ally and Fidelity insurance companies paid most of the claims, until mid-2019.
Officials did not explain how the scheme came to light, or how insurance proceeds were paid to the mechanic. Attorney General Anthony Brown said that Collins had pleaded guilty in an unrelated insurance fraud in Baltimore in 2019 and was ordered to pay $10,200 in restitution. Collins paid part of the restitution with money he stole in the Bel Air dealership scheme, Brown said.
Collins pleaded guilty Oct. 2 to the larger fraud scheme. This week, Harford County Circuit Judge Diane Adkins-Tobin sentenced him to 15 years in prison, but suspended 11 years of that. Upon his release, he will be on probation for five years and must pay the $223,000 in restitution to the victim insurance companies, Brown said.
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