Apr 9, 2018 By The 3 min read

Several area residents were among more than three dozen recently charged with insurance fraud by state prosecutors.

Charges were filed against 42 people across the state, with 16 of them in the western region. Those charged locally were:

n Gail Vagni, 53, of Harding Street, Vestaburg, Fayette County, and her son, Albert Stefanik, 29, of National Pike Road, Markleysburg, Fayette County, were each charged with theft by deception and insurance fraud. Stefanik was allegedly operating Vagni’s car with a suspended driver’s license when he rear-ended a truck. Vagni allegedly provided the insurance company with fraudulent information that she was driving the car at the time of the accident. Both were arrested on March 21.

n Heather Stockton, 33, of Hicks Street, Fairchance, Fayette County, was charged with theft by deception and insurance fraud. Stockton added comprehensive and collision coverage to her car on Oct. 4, 2017. She allegedly reported damages from an automobile accident on Oct. 11, 2017, from a reported DUI accident in which she was involved on Sept. 29, 2017. Stockton was arrested on March 13.

n Jacqueline Sumey, 51, of Third Street, Grindstone, Fayette County, and Mark Mitchell, 56, of Heistersburg Road, East Millsboro, Fayette County, were each charged with attempted theft by deception and insurance fraud. Both allegedly reported damages to Sumey’s auto insurance company after they were involved in a three-car collision that resulted in damages to the bumper and grill of Sumey’s vehicle. Investigators reportedly discovered there were only two cars involved in the accident and that Sumey’s car was not involved. No money was paid to the defendants and they were arrested on March 13.

n Olivia Stohon, 36, of A Street, Clarksville, Greene County, was charged with insurance fraud. Stohon allegedly failed to list her fiancé, a DUI-suspended driver, as a resident of her household and operator of her vehicle on an auto insurance application that she signed on March 6, 2017. The alleged misrepresentation was discovered during an auto accident claim that was submitted to the insurance company on April 4, 2017, by the claimant driver. Stohon was arrested on March 5.

n Samantha Beere, 20, of the 300 block of Gawain Circle, Belle Vernon, Westmoreland County, was charged with theft by deception and insurance fraud. Beere reinstated her insurance policy on Nov. 18, 2107. Investigators alleged Beere filed an accident claim on Nov. 20, 2017, stating that her vehicle had been involved in an accident on the same day. It is alleged that the accident actually occurred on Nov. 18, 2107, prior to her policy being reinstated. Beere was arrested on March 16.

The charges were filed as part of a state-wide sweep conducted by the Insurance Fraud Section of the state attorney general’s office.