BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Two people were arrested after facing accusations of attempting to defraud an insurance company out of over $27,000, authorities say.

According to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, Lenae Honore, 26, of Zachary and an accomplice identified as Trey Francis are accused of filing at least 43 fraudulent separate insurance claims with American Bankers Insurance between Feb. 28, 2020 and Aug. 13, 2021. Had all of the claims been filed, they would have amounted to $27,104.17.

Though most of the claims were denied for misrepresentation, authorities say 11 were paid and amounted to a value of $11,104.17.

The Louisiana Department of Insurance became suspicious of the claims and brought its concerns to the Louisiana State Police Insurance Fraud/Auto Theft Program in January of 2020.

After an investigation was launched, authorities secured a May 11, 2022 warrant for phone records associated with the 43 claims. Officials say these records led investigators directly to Honore and Francis.

An arrest document states, “Based upon the information learned as a result of this investigation, Honore and Francis perpetrated a scheme to fraudulently claim damaged or lost/stolen cell phones.”

Authorities say Honore was responsible for three paid claims valued at $4,859.21 and Francis was responsible for five paid claims that amounted to $6,245.

Both were accused of insurance fraud (felony).