FORMER ATTORNEY PLEADS GUILTY TO FELONY
INSURANCE FRAUD

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Marsden Coates, 41, of the 7500 block of Ashton Way in Baltimore County pleaded guilty to felony insurance fraud in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. Coates had been charged with submitting fraudulent documentation and statements to GEICO Insurance Company and Ohio Casualty Insurance Company in support of insurance claims totaling over $12,000.00. The conviction follows a joint investigation conducted by the Insurance Fraud Division of the Maryland Insurance Administration and the Office of the Attorney General. The Honorable Robert E. Cahill sentenced Coates to two years’ incarceration and suspended that sentence in favor of eighteen months probation. He also ordered Coates to pay appropriate restitution.

In a statement of facts presented by the prosecutor, the court learned that Coates submitted fraudulent medical bills for doctor visits and physical therapy sessions that allegedly occurred from September of 2004 through November of 2004. Coates who actually had been in an auto accident in August of 2004 later admitted to investigators that the medical documentation was fraudulent and that he never received treatment during that period. Coates, a former attorney, had consented to his disbarment in December of 2003 for unrelated misconduct.