Hagerstown Man Convicted of Felony Fraud

BALTIMORE, July 15 -- The Maryland Attorney General issued the following news release:

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that Chad Brashears, 27, of Hagerstown, was convicted in the Circuit Court for Washington County on one count of felony theft scheme. Brashears, a former licensed insurance agent, was sentenced by Judge M. Kenneth Long to a five year suspended sentence and three years probation, and ordered to perform 250 hours of community service by December 31, 2010.

Between January 2007 and August 2008, Brashears entered false information into the computer system of his employer, Wright-Gardner Insurance, Inc., in order to generate commissions for himself and increase his salary. Brashears reinstated policies that were cancelled, entered false policy information, deliberately quoted low premium amounts to clients to induce the purchase of policies, and entered the same policy information into the computer system for different clients, all to increase his salary and commissions. During this time period, Wright-Gardner overpaid Brashears $30,151. When confronted by the management staff of Wright-Gardner, Brashears admitted to making the false entries and his employment was terminated. Wright-Gardner was paid for their loss through their employee theft insurance policy and the Brashears family reimbursed the insurer.

The conviction follows a joint investigation by the Insurance Fraud Division of the Maryland Insurance Administration, the Maryland State Police and the Office of the Attorney General. In making today's announcement, Attorney General Gansler thanked Assistant Attorney General Bernard Taylor for his work on the case.

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