Las Vegas businesswoman gets probation in fraud case

Friday, Feb. 25, 2000 | 11:03 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- A Las Vegas businesswoman who over-billed two insurance companies has been sentenced to three years of probation and has been ordered to pay restitution.

Darlene Trammel, 50, owner of a Las Vegas-based business called Total Woman, provided silicone breast prostheses for a mastectomy patient. In reviewing an insurance form explaining her benefits, the patient in 1996 discovered Trammel billed the insurance company $1,000 for two silicone breast forms worth only $120.

The state attorney general's office, which investigated the case, said Trammel repeated the over-billing in 1997 with another insurance company. Trammel was indicted March 12, 1999, on two counts of felony insurance fraud and one count of theft. In a plea bargain, Trammel was convicted of a gross misdemeanor count of attempting to make a false claim for insurance benefits.

Thursday, in addition to ordering probation for Trammel, District Judge Donald Mosley ordered the woman to reimburse the insurance companies $1,365 and pay $700 to the attorney general's office for prosecution costs.

Also part of this case was an allegation that Trammel collected $4,032 in temporary total disability benefits from the Employers Insurance Co. of Nevada, formerly operated by the state. Deputy Attorney General Laurel Duffy said Trammel was working while collecting the benefits. Mosley ordered Trammel to reimburse the company.