According to a story posted on The Waycross Journal-Herald’s web site, Dana Larson Bowen, 53, of Blackshear, pleaded guilty in Superior Court to three counts of failure to report insurance premiums, two counts of felony insurance fraud, and one count of felony perjury. She was accused of insurance fraud, specifically “knowingly and willfully making fraudulent statements or representations to insurance companies, knowingly and willfully creating and submitting false certificates of insurance or insurance binders, and knowingly and willfully receiving money for the purpose of purchasing insurance and converting such money to her own use without providing the amount of insurance to customers that the customer had paid Bowen for,” according to the Journal-Herald. Bowen also made false statements during an investigative insurance hearing.
Bowen made headlines in Douglas back in June of last year when Alma attorney Kenneth Futch Jr. was charged with allowing Bowen, who was being held at the Coffee County Jail, to use his personal cell phone to make a call during a meeting at the jail. Futch was charged with obtaining/procuring a telecommunications device for an inmate. Bowen was charged with possession of a telecommunications device by an inmate. There has been no information released regarding the resolution of these charges against either Futch or Bowen.
For Bowen, the charges from Coffee County are the least of her worries. Her charges out of Pierce County were serious. And they resulted in serious consequences.
According to the Journal-Herald report, Superior Court Judge Dwayne Gillis sentenced her to the following: 25 years (18 months in confinement, a year of which will be served in prison (she will be given credit for time served in jail) then 23 ½ years on probation), $3,500 fine, and restitution to her victims capped at a maximum of $100,000. She has also been banished from Bacon, Brantley, Charlton, Coffee, Pierce, and Ware counties for 24 years.
Bowen owned Management South Insurance Agency in Blackshear. The crimes for which she was accused took place at Management South.