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A Mercer County auto body repair shop owner pleaded guilty Monday for his role in an auto repair insurance scam.

Robert Buckingham, 54, of Millstone (Monmouth County), pleaded guilty to second-degree conspiracy to commit insurance fraud before state Superior Court Judge Edward M. Neafsey in Trenton, according to state Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza Dagli. The charge was contained in a 2007 state grand jury indictment.

Neafsey scheduled sentencing for July 7. The state will recommend that Buckingham be sentenced to three years in state prison. Buckingham may also face civil insurance fraud fines.

In pleading guilty, Buckingham, the owner of Robert Christopher Collision, an auto body repair facility that does business on Kuser Road in Hamilton, admitted that between April 2005 and July 2006, he conspired with employees of his company to over-bill insurance companies for the repair of five automobiles.

Buckingham admitted, for example, that he had the frame of a damaged 2004 Cadillac Escalade repaired by welding in a section but billed the insurance company, and was subsequently paid, for the full replacement of the frame.

In 2008, one of Buckingham's employees and co-defendants, Paul Failla, 55, of Morganville, pleaded guilty to theft by deception and was subsequently sentenced to two years probation. Last year, another employee and co-defendant, Hector Henriquez, was admitted into the Mercer Pre-Trial Intervention program.

An investigation by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor also determined that Buckingham and his employees allegedly billed insurance companies for new auto repair parts when they utilized old parts. It also found they billed the insurance companies to replace auto parts when they merely repaired the damaged auto parts.

Among the insurance companies to which allegedly false claims were submitted were New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance, Travelers Auto Insurance, Selective Insurance and Mercury Insurance.

As part of the investigation into this case, a civil complaint seeking forfeiture of property owned and used by Robert Christopher Collision based on fraud was filed. As a result, the court has ordered Buckingham and Robert Christopher Associates Inc. not to sell or otherwise transfer assets of the business or the real property used by the business.

The pending complaint seeks forfeiture of the assets and real estate from Buckingham and alleges that the property was used to commit the crimes alleged in the indictment.

State Investigator Wendy Wylie, Civil Investigator Frank Crosson, and Deputy Attorneys General Kristen Harberg, Christine Hoffman, Carol Stanton Meier and John Higgins were assigned to the investigation.

– TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM