LV man gets probation in insurance fraud

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Thursday, Oct. 28, 1999 | 10:24 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- District Judge Joseph Bonaventure Wednesday placed Kevin N. Decker, 28, of Las Vegas on three years probation for falsely reporting that his pickup truck had been stolen to defraud his insurance company of $11,291.

Decker must repay California Casualty Insurance Co., complete a financial management counseling program and perform eight hours of community service each month during the probation period.

Deputy Attorney General Greg Hojnowski said Decker pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor charge of attempting to submit a false claim to an insurance company.

Decker had insured his 1996 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck with California Casualty. But his payments soon became higher than the truck was worth. On a trip to Ensenada, Mexico, in February 1998 he abandoned his truck and returned home where he reported the vehicle was stolen in Las Vegas.

He then submitted a claim to the insurance company, which paid $12,000 to Wells Fargo bank, the lienholder on the truck.

Hojnowski said a joint investigation discovered Decker's truck had actually been recovered in Ensenada by police before the date of the alleged theft in Las Vegas. He said Decker admitted to investigators his plan to collect on the truck.