Essex County, New Jersey Man Sentenced for Role in Car Theft Ring

August 24, 2007 -- TRENTON - New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced that an Essex County man was sentenced to state prison today for his role in an automobile theft and give up ring.

According to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown, Ronald Bennett, 20, of East Orange, was sentenced today to seven years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Jerome M. St. John in Essex County. He was ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined, and his driver’s license was suspended for 10 years. Bennett’s sentence is pursuant to his May 18 guilty plea before Judge Joseph V. Isabella to a criminal accusation which charged him with receiving stolen property.

As part of the same investigation, Frazier M. Gibson, 20, of Montclair, was sentenced on July 19 to five years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Nancy Sivelli in Essex County. Gibson was sentenced pursuant to his May 24 guilty plea to an accusation charging him with receiving stolen property and aggravated assault. Gibson was already serving a five-year sentence on unrelated charges at the Mountainview Youth Correctional Facility in Hunterdon County.

At his guilty plea hearing, Bennett admitted that between Sept. 28 and Nov. 1, 2006, he sold 12 stolen vehicles, including BMWs, Infinitis, a Jaguar, an Audi and a motorcycle to a person he believed was interested in buying the stolen vehicles. The “buyer” was actually an undercover investigator with the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor.

Gibson admitted at his plea hearing that he received stolen property by acting as a driver for the theft ring. In this capacity, Gibson took possession of stolen Infinitis, BMWs, and a Chevrolet Avalanche.

Some of the cars were give ups. A give up occurs when the owner of an automobile voluntarily gives his car to another in order to submit a phony auto theft insurance claim. The car is typically chopped for parts or retagged with a new vehicle identification number and sold. The stolen and give up vehicles sold by Bennett were believed to have an aggregate value of approximately $350,000.

Bennett and Gibson were arrested by investigators from the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor on Nov. 1, 2006 with the assistance of the Essex/Union Auto Theft Task Force.
At the time of the arrest, Gibson attempted to elude arresting officers and crashed a stolen vehicle into an unmarked police vehicle. He was charged with aggravated assault, among other offenses.

Gibson was previously sentenced to five years in prison in March 2007 in Union County, where he pleaded guilty to charges of eluding a law enforcement officer in a separate incident.

State Investigators Jose Vendas and Johnny Ho and Deputy Attorney General Richard W. Queen were assigned to the investigation. Queen represented the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencings.

“We will continue to target auto theft rings with effective investigations and prosecutions,” said Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown.

Prosecutor Brown noted that some important cases have started with anonymous tips. People who are concerned about insurance cheating and have information about a fraud can report it anonymously by calling the toll-free hotline 1-877-55-FRAUD or visiting the Web site www.NJInsuranceFraud.org. State regulations permit an award to be paid to an eligible person who provides information that leads to an arrest, prosecution and conviction for insurance fraud.

The Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was established by the Automobile Insurance Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is the centralized state agency that investigates and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.

Source: New Jersey Attorney General

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