Insurance company claims representative pleads guilty to fraud on her own car

A Puyallup woman has pleaded guilty to attempted forgery and attempted insurance fraud after submitting a bogus receipt for a $1,609 windshield repair to her insurance company.

Candice Leigh Chapman, 31, was sentenced last week to 45 hours of community service and a deferred sentence.

In June of 2010, Chapman filed a claim saying that she'd had a damaged windshield replaced in her Volkswagen Touareg and had paid for the repair herself. She emailed a copy of a quote from a Seattle auto glass company, with "paid" stamped on the  bottom.

But when her insurer, Farmers, called the glass shop to confirm the bill, the shop said it had never repaired or replaced the windshield. Nor do they use a "paid" stamp. At that point, Farmers turned the investigation over to the state insurance commissioner's Special Investigations Unit.

The unusual wrinkle in this case is what Chapman did for a living: She was an insurance company claims representative at a different insurance company. And her primary job responsibility was handling auto glass claims.