An Englewood insurance adjuster has pleaded guilty to a fraud charge, admitting that she billed more than $42,000 to insurance companies and kept the money instead of giving it to policy holders she represented, authorities said Monday.
Sheena Clarke, 59, a state-licensed public adjuster who represents policy holders in claims against insurance companies, billed four insurance companies for repairs to damaged property, but the repairs were never made and Clarke kept all of the money for herself, officials said.
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She pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Newark on Friday to defrauding clients and four insurance companies, Jeffrey S. Chiesa, the state Attorney General, said in a statement.
A plea agreement calls for Clarke to be sentenced to probation. She has agreed to pay back $42,519 that she received from insurance companies, to pay a $5,125 fine to the state Department of Banking and Insurance, and to surrender her public adjuster’s license. An Essex County grand jury indicted her on charges of insurance fraud in February, officials said.
Authorities said Clarke admitted that she submitted false claims to four insurance companies over a five-year period, ending in August 2010, for properties in Paterson, Newark, Irvington and East Orange. The four companies — Philadelphia Contributorship, Germantown, Liberty Mutual and Western World — paid the claims directly to Clarke, officials said.
