Stroudsburg business owner sentenced on forgery guilty-plea

Jan. 26--Initially charged with insurance fraud for allegedly fabricating or inflating the cost of fire-related losses to her Stroudsburg fashion business, the owner pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of forgery and was sentenced Monday to 15 months probation.

Dawn Notaro, 42, of Stroudsburg, owner of Dawn of New York on Main Street, chose not to say anything when given the chance to address the court moments prior to sentencing.

Notaro was charged in June with insurance fraud, attempted theft by deception/false impression and forging amounts on receipts for certain work she had others do for her.

This is in connection with Notaro allegedly claiming what the state Attorney General's Office called an inflated total of $183,487.50 in losses from an Aug. 1, 2010, fire at Grandpa Pete's Bagels next door to her business. Based on this inflated figure, Liberty Mutual was to pay Notaro $105,000, according to the Attorney General's Office affidavit.

She later pleaded guilty to forgery in return for all other charges being dropped.

Prior to Notaro's guilty plea, defense attorney Brett Riegel said the $183,487.50 figure was actually closer to $300,000, but that Notaro decided to no longer fight the insurance company due to caring for her sick mother at the time. Riegel questioned why the Attorney General's Office waited, until after the insurance-fraud statute of limitations expired in 2014, to charge Notaro, as opposed to charging her when she was in a better position to challenge the insurance company on what she was rightfully entitled to for her losses.

The Attorney General's Office does not comment on specific cases.

After Notaro met with a Liberty Mutual claims investigator, it was later discovered that she had forged inflated amounts on receipts showing what people had charged her for reupholstering furniture, providing T-shirts and performing other services for her. These forged receipt figures had been submitted as part of her justification for the amount of losses she claimed.

Riegel said after Monday's sentencing that Notaro isn't required to pay any restitution since Liberty Mutual never paid her anything.

___

(c)2016 the Pocono Record, Stroudsburg, Pa.

Visit the Pocono Record, Stroudsburg, Pa. at http://www.poconorecord.com/

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.