The Illinois Department of Insurance has cracked a case of insurance fraud, as agent Reuben Collier Jr. of Zion pleaded guilty this month to four Class 3 felony charges in Lake County Court.

Operating out of the Collier Insurance Agency in Waukegan, Collier admitted he bilked 22 north suburban businesses out of approximately $400,000 in workers’ compensation premiums by fabricating false insurance certificates.

“Workers’ compensation fraud imposes unnecessary cost on employers and employees, and will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Director of the Illinois Department of Insurance Michael McRaith said in a statement. “We commend the Waukegan Police and the Lake County State’s Attorney for the great work and successful collaboration that led to this conviction.”
 
Investigators, say that many of Collier’s clients paid him in cash for workers’ compensation coverage, and he that “willfully forged hundreds” of bogus insurance certificates to fool clients into believing that their premiums had been forwarded to insurers for coverage.  

According to his plea agreement, Collier will spend a year alternating between imprisonment and electronic home monitoring. This period will be followed by 30 months of probation.