Couple Plead No Contest in Insurance Fraud Scheme

A former secretary in a State Farm Insurance office pleaded no contest Monday to charges that she stole more than $250,000 from the company through bogus accident-claim settlements, prosecutors said.

Rhonda Simpson pleaded to five counts of grand theft and four counts of insurance fraud. Her husband, Robert Simpson, 39, pleaded no contest to four counts of receiving stolen property.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan accepted the pleas and scheduled sentencing July 9. Under terms of a plea agreement, Rhonda Simpson will receive a five-year prison term and her husband a one-year jail term. They must also pay restitution.

Rhonda Simpson, who worked for a State Farm agent in Canoga Park, was accused of submitting 165 phony claims during 1986-88 and receiving $251,244 that went into a joint account with her husband.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen S. Licker said Rhonda Simpson would use repair and billing documentation from old claim files to produce a new claim, then forge the agent’s signature and make the draft payable to her husband. She also altered copies of the draft sent to State Farm to conceal the pattern of payments.

The fraud was uncovered by a company claim confirmation program in which a small, random sampling of claimants are sent follow-up letters to confirm the facts and payment amounts, Licker said. When one claimant denied making the claim, an internal audit was launched.

The Simpsons were in Colorado when charges were filed and were extradited to Los Angeles to face charges.