COUNTYWIDE : Salesman Pleads Not Guilty to $190,000 Fraud
A Hollywood insurance salesman pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he defrauded seven Ventura County residents of $190,000 by selling them bogus insurance policies.
Elmer Oliver (Knobby) Smith, 63, denied seven counts of grand theft and four counts of failing to file an income tax return, which were lodged in a grand jury indictment filed last week in Ventura County Superior Court.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff G. Bennett said Smith had been selling insurance although the state of California revoked his agent’s license in August, 1987. Bennett said Smith was authorized to sell insurance for Mission Insurance Co., which went bankrupt in October, 1985, and Colonial Penn Insurance, which stopped doing commercial business in 1986.
Bennett said Smith also sold worthless policies from seven still-operating insurance companies by typing in the companies’ names on blank documents claiming the buyer was insured for automobile coverage, liability and workers’ compensation.
“He would solicit people’s business,” Bennett said. “He knew these small business owners from other contacts over the years, and he would sell them on his insurance. . . . He would keep it going just by sending them bills every month and dropping by to pick up the payments.”
Smith was indicted Dec. 6 by the Ventura County grand jury and arrested Wednesday at his home.
A trial is scheduled for Jan. 22. If convicted, Smith faces up to nine years in prison.
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