Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) Director Anita Fox announced that a Michigan resident who pled guilty to auto insurance fraud has been sentenced to pay restitution and fines of more than $15,000.
Over the course of several months in 2016, Amelia Zea-Behnke, of Delta Township, submitted fraudulent automobile insurance claims seeking reimbursement for providing attendant care services to her son, who had previously been injured in an auto accident. A subsequent joint investigation by the DIFS Fraud Investigation Unit (FIU) and the Michigan Department of Attorney General proved that Ms. Zea-Behnke did not provide those attendant care services during the claimed time period and was therefore not entitled to the payments she had received.
As a result of the investigation, Ms. Zea-Behnke was charged with the following:
- four counts of insurance fraud; and
- four counts of false pretenses $1,000 – $20,000.
Ms. Zea-Behnke pled guilty to one count of false pretenses on October 27, 2021. Her plea bargain included the payment of $15,498.75 in restitution to the defrauded insurance company and the dismissal of the other pending charges. On January 12, 2022, Zea-Behnke was officially sentenced to pay that restitution as well as fines and costs, by Judge Rosemarie Aquilina in 30th Circuit Court, bringing the case to a close.
Source: Michigan DIFS
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