Shoplifter Crashed In High Speed Montgomery Twp. Chase, Filed Fraudulent Insurance Claim: Attorney General

A Philadelphia woman who has already pleaded guilty to shoplifting more than $3,000 in items from stores around Montgomery County has now been charged with insurance fraud, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.

Officials allege that Maya Bennett, 29, of the 1000 block of Cambridge Street was pulled over in Montgomery Township in 2012 after officers responded to a report of shoplifting from Olly Shoes.

Bennett did not pull over, however, and fled from the officer into Lower Gwynedd Township, where she crashed and flipped her car near the township line. She struck two other cars during the crash.

Later, after pleading guilty, the attorney general's office alleges that she pursued an automobile insurance claim through her policy with Erie Insurance Company.

In the claim, she made a series of false statements to the insurance company regarding the circumstances of the accident, officials said. Among the false claims: she denied she was the driver of the car during the accident. According to investigators, she did this to obtain insurance benefits to which she was not entitled.

She has been charged with insurance fraud, theft by deception, criminal use of a communication facility and related counts.

Patch file photo.