A Stirling man has pled guilty to fraud for illegally claiming additional commissions from his place of employment amounting to more than $540,000 over nine years.
Stephen Evanson pled guilty to a single count of fraud over $5,000 for claiming $541,370.77 in false commissions from Schwartz Reliance Insurance Company and Registry Services, where he was employed as a licensed insurance broker.
Evanson started with the company in 2005, and in 2007 his pay switched from salary and commission to commission only.
In 2008, Evanson falsely reported $5,790.64 in commission over what he legitimately earned.
Also falsely reported: $23,508.09 in 2009; $59,751.51 in 2010; $71,794.36 in 2011; $58,618.89 in 2012; $68,453.71 in 2013; $81,839.60 in 2014; $81,104.10 in 2015; and $88,440.99 in 2016.
After filing his false reports each month, Evanson then went back into the computer system and deleted his fraudulent inputs. As a result, the system no longer reflected the inflated dollar amounts he claimed to have earned.
In September 2016, Schwartz was alerted when Evanson failed to enter a reduced premium in the computer system as per a client’s request.
It was determined Evanson had closed the completed request without processing a reduction in premium. It was also determined he had created a fake client account and claimed to have sold insurance to a local business when he had not.
Other false claims made to the company included: creating false client accounts; altering existing accounts, such as changing account numbers or client names; false reports on selling new insurance polices and renewing existing ones; failure to record premiums on reduced and cancelled policies; false reporting on commissions earned; and entering the same commissions multiple times.
In October 2016, Evanson was questioned by the company about his actions, at which point he admitted to committing fraud.
Read the full story over at the Lethbridge Herald.
