A Redwood City man was sentenced to two years probation and 40 days in jail after he pleaded no contest to two felony charges of insurance fraud Thursday, said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County district attorney.
Though Uriel Lenin Sotomayor, 32, pleaded no contest to felony charges, a judge reduced the charges to misdemeanors at sentencing. He will receive credit for one day served, said Wagstaffe.
In 2010 and 2011, four individuals brought their vehicles into Quest Auto Collision Shop, where Sotomayor was foreman and later owner. At one point, the shop was renamed Premier Auto Collision Shop. All four car owners had insurance estimates done and payments made to the shop, and were inspected by either the California Bureau of Automotive Repair or Farmers Insurance. In each of the cases, discrepancies between the value of the work performed and what the insurance paid were found. In one instance, an insurance company paid for a new auto part to be installed, but the shop repaired the part instead and kept the difference. Sotomayor also obtained a worker’s compensation policy at a low rate based on fraudulent representation of his shop’s payroll, according to prosecutors.
“From our perspective, it’s a very lenient sentence,” said Wagstaffe.
Sotomayor will next appear in court Feb. 23 for restitution, which prosecutors estimate to be between $30,000 and $50,000.
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CA Is Burning said:
Should politicians who intentionally lie and mislead their flocks be waterboarded?
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