Lawyer, Office Manager Get Prison for Insurance Fraud : Courts: Both sentenced to 7 years and $10,000 fine for phony car-accident scam that cost insurers as much as $1 million.

An Orange County attorney and his office manager were each sentenced Friday to nearly seven years in prison for running a car insurance fraud scheme, after a judge called the case against them “overwhelming.”

Thomas F. Mullen, 45, a personal injury lawyer from Costa Mesa, was convicted in May of nine counts of auto insurance fraud, marking the county’s first prosecution of a lawyer for such an offense.

The jury found that, together with his office manager, Jose Jesus Toribio, 37, of Santa Ana, Mullen helped stage traffic accidents that cost insurance companies between $200,000 and $1 million.

Each man was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison and levied the maximum fine, $10,000. Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey cited the “magnitude” and “scope” of the operation in passing sentence, as well as the period of time over which it was run. He also noted “the number of otherwise innocent people who were sucked into it . . . corrupted . . . paid money in order to perpetrate these fraudulent, phony auto accidents.”

Dickey said “the evidence in this case is overwhelming,” including “the consequent losses, not only to the insurers, but probably everybody else in the state who pays insurance premiums. . . . For that reason alone I think the most severe punishment is called for.”

The sentence, the judge said, should “serve as a deterrent for others.”

With earned credits for good behavior, Mullen could be released after serving three years and four months, the judge said.

Before sentence was pronounced, Mullen’s attorney, Salvatore P. Ciulla, told Dickey that Mullen was prepared to surrender his license to practice law on the spot. However, after sentencing, Ciulla referred inquiries on the subject to another lawyer representing Mullen on the license issue.

Ciulla had asked the judge to sentence Mullen to probation and to allow him to make restitution to the insurance companies.

In a personal plea, Mullen said: “I have no other way to respond to the crimes for which I have been convicted. I’ve lost my practice, my license, my reputation. What more can I do, except to respond monetarily?”

However, after a recess ordered by the judge to contact the insurance companies involved, the prosecutor relayed a preference from an Aetna investigator that Mullen serve prison time to set an example.

Toribio, who has already served almost a year and a half in jail, could be released in less than 30 months.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth O. Chinn said he was pleased with the sentences, noting that he had requested prison terms of seven years for each man.

“I certainly hope that other attorneys are paying attention to this,” Chinn said. “I don’t think anybody believes that this is the only case out there like this. Our office is real concerned about other cases of this sort that are existing right now here in Orange County, and we’re hoping that the folks that are engaged in this kind of conduct, the attorneys that are engaged in this kind of conduct, are paying real close attention.”