Washington State Insurance Commissioner

OLYMPIA, Wash., Sept. 25 -- The Washington stateOffice of the Insurance Commissioner issued the following news release:

Four people have been charged in this month with various felonies after being investigated by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler's Special Investigations Unit (SIU).

Snohomish County

William C. Breedlove III, 51, was charged with first-degree theft in Snohomish County Superior Court on Sept. 22. Breedlove is accused of taking $16,530 in commercial insurance premiums from a Lynnwood production company for fraudulent insurance policies on two tour buses the company owned. Breedlove operated Breedlove and Associates insurance brokerage in Hendersonville, Tenn.; he later admitted to investigators that he used the monthly premium payments from the tour company to pay his home mortgage.

Pierce County

Two women were charged in Pierce County Superior Court on Sept. 18 in connection with false auto insurance claims, both with Sentry Insurance.

Isabel Osorto, 22, of Tacoma was charged with one count of insurance fraud. Osorto hit another car in December 2012, and was cited by Washington State Patrol for a driving infraction. Later that day, she obtained insurance on her Acura TSX; three days later, she reported to the Fife Police Department and the insurance company that her car had been damaged in a hit-and-run collision while it was parked and filed a claim for more than $9,000 in damages. Subsequently, the driver of the car she had hit inquired with her insurance company about the damage to his car, which triggered an investigation into the hit-and-run report.

Christine Marie Larsen, 29, of Tacoma was charged with one count of first-degree theft. Her Lexus IS300 was totaled by another driver on Nov. 25, 2013. The next day, Larsen took out a policy on the car; she filed a claim for the damages on Dec.1, 2013, stating she had been in a collision that day. The insurance company deemed the car a total loss and paid her $11,250. Sentry later found a Washington State Patrol report for the Nov. 25 collision involving Larsen's car.

Clark County

Gary Lee Havens, 62, of La Center was charged in Clark County Superior Court on Sept. 23 with attempted first-degree theft and perjury. Havens filed a claim with PEMCO Insurance that his vehicle was broken into at the SeaTac Marriot Hotel in March 2011 while he was attending a conference. He claimed 106 items totaling $45,277 were stolen from his vehicle and submitted receipts and photographs as proof that he owned the items. Metadata revealed that seven of the photos he submitted as proof of ownership were taken in April 2011, a month after Havens filed his claim. The value of the seven items in the photos was $8,728; items included a camera bag, a computer a nail gun and a circular saw. According to the police report filed by the King County Sheriff's Office, Havens reported only four items as stolen on the day of the break-in. He later said two of the items shown in the photos that were taken after the break-in were replacement items, which contradicted what he had told investigators while under oath.

Court dates will be set for all four defendants.

Kreidler's Special Investigations Unit investigates insurance fraud and works with the Attorney General's Office and local prosecutors to prosecute criminal cases. In 2013, the unit prevented more than $237,000 in losses in Washington state. Consumers can report suspected insurance fraud on the Insurance Commissioner's website (http://insurance.wa.gov/complaints-and-fraud/report-fraud/report-fraud-scams/index.html).

CC AutoTriage13cn-140925-30TagarumaMar-4876368 30TagarumaMar