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Former principal learns lesson on car insurance fraud

Posted On: Dec. 18, 2018 12:18 PM CST

Former principal learns lesson on car insurance fraud

Geography can help with math when it comes to car insurance rates, but civics and perhaps ethics tell us it might not be worth it, as two former high school principals in New York recently learned.

Oneatha Swinton registered her luxury cars at the Pennsylvania home of a city vendor and former principal she had hired in an effort to save upwards of $3,000 a year, according to the New York Post reporting on her recent insurance-fraud guilty plea.

Originally charged with six felony counts and one misdemeanor, Ms. Swinton pleaded guilty Dec. 12 to a misdemeanor in a deal with the Pennsylvania attorney general was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $6,200 in restitution plus an $800 fine, according to the newspaper.

Ms. Swinton, 40, a Staten Island resident, obtained a Pennsylvania driver’s license in 2014 using Tanya John’s rural East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, address as a way to save money on car insurance, according to the article. 

The homeowner, Ms. John, was also charged in the scheme and was ordered to pay a $500 fine, and remain on probation for 19 months. Afterward, her records in the case may be expunged. She did not plead guilty, according to the article.