Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 05/19/2009

Contact person(s):

Media Coordinator, Terry Menshek - (707) 565-3098 Media Spokesperson, Chief Deputy District Attorney Spencer Brady

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

TIMBER OPERATOR CONVICTED OF FALSE INSURANCE COVERAGE

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua announced that last week a Sonoma County jury returned a guilty verdict against Miles Mathew Dupret, age 62, of Petaluma.  He was convicted of two felony counts of filing a false document with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (“CalFire”).

Mr. Passalacqua stated:  “This office is dedicated to strong enforcement of laws that protect both individuals and the environment.  The defendant's decision to file a false certificate of liability insurance jeopardized both.”

California law requires that any applicant for a commercial timber operator's license submit proof of general liability insurance with a minimum coverage of one million dollars to CalFire before the agency can issue a commercial timber operator's license.  Mr. Dupret, a long-time commercial timber operator, submitted false certificates of liability insurance to CalFire so that the agency would issue him a commercial timber operator's license in 2005 and in 2006.  The insurance company named on the false certificates, Northwest Insurance Company, had never insured Mr. Dupret.  The fraud was exposed in late 2006, when another insurance company contacted Northwest Insurance Company requesting payment for damage caused by Mr. Dupret's commercial logging activities.

California State Department of Insurance Detective Matthew McCabe headed up the investigation, which revealed that Mr. Dupret had also submitted a false certificate of insurance in support of his commercial timber operator's license application going back as far as 2003.  This matter came to the attention of the Department of Insurance when Mr. Dupret was hired by a party in Guerneville to cut certain trees on his property, but, in error, cut the trees on a neighboring property.

The jury returned the guilty verdict on May 11, 2009, and the defendant will be sentenced in Department 10 on June 10, 2009, at 9:00 a.m.  Mr. Dupret faces a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in prison.

Deputy District Attorney Robin Hammond was the prosecutor assigned to the case.