TRENTON, N.J., Oct. 12 -- The New Jersey Attorney General issued the following news release:

Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that a former Essex County insurance agent has been sentenced for diverting more than $26,900 worth of life insurance proceeds to herself.

Susan Caines, 61, of East Orange, was sentenced to five years of probation by Superior Court Judge Scott J. Moynihan in Union County. Caines also entered into a consent judgment ordering her to pay $26,905 in restitution. The sentence was based on Caines' Aug. 15 guilty plea to third-degree theft by deception, a charge contained in a Feb. 24, 2010Union County grand jury indictment.

In pleading guilty, Caines admitted that between August 2004 and December 2005, while employed as an agent for Monumental Life Insurance Company, she participated in a scheme in which false disbursement request forms were sent to Monumental Life Insurance Company for payment, from accounts that had been dormant. These fraudulent request forms purportedly represented the requests of certain life insurance policy holders to claim insurance proceeds from existing policies. Caines subsequently cashed $26,905 to which she was not entitled. Although the policies were fraudulently cashed out, Monumental Life Insurance Company subsequently made good on all of the policies so that none of the customers lost coverage or money through Caines' illegal actions.

Deputy Attorneys General Dennis Kwasnik and Carlos Lopez prosecuted the case.

Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi noted that New Jersey law provides that there is a presumption against any sentence of incarceration for a person convicted of a third-degree crime who has not previously been convicted of an indictable offense.

Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Chillemi thanked Monumental Life Insurance Company for referring this matter to the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor and for assisting in the investigation. The Department of Banking and Insurance routinely assists the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor with the investigation and prosecution of licensed insurance agents. This assistance enables the State to coordinate criminal investigations and prosecutions with any imposition of licensing sanctions in order to protect the public.

TNS C-Santpan-Santpan 121013-4067377 71Santosh