Canoga Park Man Gets 3-Year Term in Insurance Swindle

A Canoga Park man who pleaded no contest in May to six charges of grand theft for selling fraudulent insurance policies was sentenced Monday to three years in County Jail.

Robert R. Stuart Jr., 38, could have received a maximum term of six years for the offenses but agreed to enter the plea in exchange for the lighter sentence.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge David M. Horwitz also placed Stuart on three years’ probation and ordered him to make restitution to 15 people who paid an estimated $25,000 in premiums for insurance policies that did not exist.

Horwitz stayed Stuart’s sentence until Aug. 11 to allow his attorney, P. Carey Caruso, to present evidence that Stuart, who now works as a taxi driver, would qualify for a work furlough program.

Paid Back Some

Deputy City Atty. Gary Rowse said Stuart already has paid back some of his victims. Rowse said, however, that two people who were not named as victims in the criminal filing have since accused Stuart of collecting insurance premiums from them after his arrest in April, 1985.

“It would appear that he was continuing to do this activity well into this year,” Rowse said. “I fear that he made restitution by robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Rowse said new charges could be filed against Stuart if more victims come forward.

Caruso said that if Rowse had evidence of more victims he should have filed more charges.

“If there was anything else left outstanding with respect to Mr. Stuart, they would have put it on the table today,” Caruso said.

Kept Selling After Owner’s Death

Stuart began his insurance swindle in 1983, Rowse said, after the death of the owner of Great World Insurance of Van Nuys, where he worked as a bookkeeper. Stuart, though never licensed to sell insurance, continued his former employer’s business of selling policies, Rowse said, but never had the policies issued and simply pocketed the premiums.

The state Department of Insurance began investigating Stuart more than two years ago, after victims tried to make claims on the policies but could not collect, City Atty. James K. Hahn said at the time of Stuart’s plea.

Stuart’s no-contest plea means the criminal proceedings cannot be used against him as evidence of guilt in any civil lawsuits brought by his victims.