Shelley woman sentenced for insurance fraud

Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has announced a Bingham County woman was sentenced Monday, January 28, for insurance fraud.

38-year-old Danielle Collins of Shelley pleaded guilty in November.

Seventh District Court Judge Darren B. Simpson withheld judgment and placed Collins on three years of supervised probation.

He ordered her to pay $800 in fines, $245 in court costs, $500 reimbursement to the public defender and $538 in restitution to the Idaho Department of Insurance.

Judge Simpson also ordered Collins to complete 100 hours of community service.

The court ordered and then suspended 180 days of discretionary jail time.

Collins was in an automobile accident in an uninsured vehicle on August 25, 2017, and documented the accident on Facebook. Later that day, she purchased auto insurance on the same vehicle. On August 28, Collins submitted a claim for an accident she said happened on August 27th.

During a Department of Insurance investigation, Collins admitted the accident happened before she obtained insurance.

Deputy Attorney General Nicole Schafer in the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Unit prosecuted the case.