HILLSBOROUGH: Local woman charged with insurance fraud

      Maria Demeter, also known as Maria Schebece, 42, of East Brookside Lane, Hillsborough, was charged Aug. 27 with insurance fraud in the third degree. She allegedly bought two insurance policies — one for her spouse, who couldn’t get insurance because of his driving record.
   Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano said that in April, his office’s Insurance Fraud Unit received a referral from New Jersey Manufacturer’s Insurance Company. The company said that one of its insureds, by the name of Maria Demeter, recently had disclosed that she made material misrepresentation in obtaining her motor vehicle insurance policies since 1999.
   Specifically, Ms. Demeter had obtained two motor vehicle policies as a single woman living in a household with no other registered drivers. However, this was in fact false and she was in fact married and living with her husband, a registered New Jersey driver.
   Prosecutor Soriano said the investigation revealed that due to Ms. Demeter’s misrepresentations, she obtained an insurance policy that she would have in fact not been eligible for due to her spouse’s driving record. Ms. Demeter also obtained a monetary benefit by paying substantially lower insurance rates than she would have paid had she provided true information to the company.
   Ms. Demeter was served with a summons by detectives from the Insurance Fraud Unit and released.