Former South Dakota Deputy, Insurance Agent Sentenced for Fraud

A South Dakota sheriff’s deputy and former insurance producer who pleaded guilty in an insurance fraud case has been sentenced to about 2 1/2 months in jail and 2 1/2 years of probation.

Forty-two-year-old Rob Hotchkiss of Delmont was accused of submitting fraudulent insurance applications to obtain commissions while working for a Sioux Falls agency in 2008. He pleaded guilty early this year to grand theft by deception and then resigned his job as a Douglas County deputy.

The Mitchell Daily Republic reported that state officials alleged Hotchkiss had created a fictitious company with fictitious workers for which he filed the insurance applications.

Hotchkiss already has paid about $7,000 in restitution, according to the Daily Republic.