JACKSON – A former insurance agent has pleaded guilty to embezzlement after he accepted insurance premiums from clients and then pocketed the cash for personal use. Eric Jerome Boone, 50, of Olive Branch appeared before Judge Robert Chamberlin in DeSoto County Circuit Court Wednesday and entered an open plea to the charges.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said Boone refused to accept the state’s recommended sentence and threw himself on the mercy of the court.
An investigation by the Insurance Fraud Unit of the Attorney General’s Office showed that Boone, while working as an insurance agent, collected premium payments in the amount of $3,452.40 and failed to deposit them, using them instead for his own purpose.
On Aug. 4, Judge Chamberlin sentenced Boone to seven years in jail with two suspended, with five to serve with two years of supervised probation, to run consecutive to a Forrest County conviction Boone is serving at the Restitution Center in Forrest County.
“I applaud Judge Chamberlin on sending this insurance agent to the pen,” Hood Attorney General Hood said. “Insurance fraud causes all of our rates to increase.”
Special Assistant Attorney General Marvin Sanders prosecuted this case for the Attorney General’s Office.
Be the first to comment