Hillsborough woman may pay $40K for insurance fraud
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A Hillsborough woman who pleaded guilty to insurance fraud after being accused of lying to get cheap insurance rates for 13 years could owe nearly $40,000 restitution and community service time.
Maria Demeter, 42, also known as Maria Schebece, of East Brookside Lane in Hillsborough, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of third-degree insurance fraud before Judge Julie M. Marino in Somerset County Superior Court in Somerville, according to Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey D. Soriano.
In exchange for her plea, the state recommended Demeter be placed on non-custodial probation, should perform 50 hours of community service, and should make restitution of up to $39,019.76 at the court’s discretion at the time of sentencing, the prosecutor said in a news release.
In April 2012, the prosecutor’s office Insurance Fraud Unit received a referral from New Jersey Manufacturer’s Insurance Company informing them that Maria Demeter had disclosed having made material misrepresentations when obtaining her motor vehicle insurance policies since 1999, Soriano said.
Demeter had obtained two motor vehicle policies as a single woman living in a household with no other registered drivers, but she was actually married and living with her husband, a registered New Jersey driver, the release said.
Demeter would not have been eligible for the insurance policies she obtained due to her husband’s driving record, and in doing so, she avoided premium payments of $34,814, and would not have received $4,205.76 in March of 2010 for a claim, Soriano said.
Demeter was served on Aug. 27 with a summons complaint charging third degree insurance fraud by detectives from the prosecutor’s office Insurance Fraud Unit and was released on her own recognizance, the release said.
Demeter is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 1 before Judge Marino, the release said.
By Walter O’Brien/NJ.com The Somerset Reporter
on December 05, 2012 at 12:59 PM
http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2012/12/hillsborough_woman_may_pay_40g.html
