Carlsbad

A Carlsbad insurance agent was sentenced to two years in state prison Monday for bilking 15 teachers from around the county out of $215,000.

Emmett Lynn Kemp Jr., 41, also known as Alan Scott, received the maximum sentence possible from San Diego Superior Court Judge Richard Haden under the terms of a plea bargain.

Kemp, who did business under the company name of San Diego Financial Services, pleaded guilty in January to five counts of grand theft.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Duane Shinnick said Kemp used the money to run his business, buy a new car and gamble instead of investing it in a tax shelter where it would earn 10% to 12% interest, as he had promised the teachers.

Two insurance companies for which Kemp was acting as an agent, which apparently were unaware that he was taking the money and putting it in separate accounts for himself, have agreed to repay the amounts lost by each teacher.

Haden didn’t order Kemp to repay the teachers, but Shinnick indicated that the insurance companies may try to recover their losses from Kemp later in a civil lawsuit.

Kemp, who solicited the funds between November, 1982, and September, 1985, turned himself in to authorities when he was unable to make the payments due the investors on the phony three-year investments. He was a licensed agent and had legitimate policies with several companies.