Louisiana Woman Gets a Year in Prison for Insurance Fraud

A 54-year-old Louisiana woman has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for insurance fraud, and must pay $9,100 restitution.

Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander Van Hook said in a news release that Lasandra Laverne Edwards of Monroe was sentenced on one count of mail fraud.

Her guilty plea says she valued her belongings at $1,000 when filing for bankruptcy in October 2013, but bought a $100,000 renters’ insurance policy a month later.

After her house caught fire that December, she claimed that it destroyed $116,000 worth of property.

The news release says the house caught fire Dec. 1, 2013, and Edwards reaffirmed the $1,000 value for her furniture and clothes at a bankruptcy hearing Dec. 10, 2013 — one day before filing the insurance claim.