Nev. Agent Sentenced for Fraud

Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa announced that Guy Mitchell Sheets, 38, of Henderson, Nev., was sentenced to 12 to 36 months in prison, concurrent, for the two felony counts of insurance fraud he plead guilty to.

The term of incarceration was suspended, and Sheets was placed on probation for three years. Sheets was ordered to make restitution of $63,130.37 to California State Automobile Association (CSAA), reimburse the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Unit (IFU) $2,500 in investigative costs, complete DNA testing, and testify against the other defendants if necessary. Sheets had no prior criminal record and accepted his responsibility when confronted by the IFU. Sheets faced up to six years in prison and fines of $15,000.

In August of 2000, while conducting a routine internal investigation, the investigative firm of Bland & Rodarte, discovered the fraudulent scheme. Subsequent investigation by Bland & Rodarte and the IFU revealed that Sheets, a licensed insurance agent and regional supervisor, along with Deborah Marie Bray, a claims adjuster under Sheet’s supervision, created approximately 20 false insurance claims, defrauding CSAA of over $180,300 during an 18-month period from Jan. 1999 through Aug. 2000.

The conspiracy included 14 other individuals who had been recruited by either Sheets or Bray. The scam involved “packing” false claimants, adding people not actually involved in the accident, into automobile accident claims; asserting automobile accident claims on behalf of legitimate claimants without their knowledge and then subverting those funds among the conspirators; and creating false accident claims with the complicity of the policyholders for automobile accidents that never actually occurred.