Claims News Service, Dec. 16, 11:19 p.m. EST -- An insurance adjuster who stole more than $1.2 million from her employer is going to spend the next 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to a first-degree felony charge.

Brenda Buckaloo-Merchant adjusted claims for Unitrin Business Insurance in Dallas, Texas, but her paycheck from the company wasn't her only source of income. According to Kyson Johnson, lead prosecutor from the Texas Department of Insurance's (TDI) fraud unit that handled the case, Buckaloo-Merchant had been cheating the company since late 1999 through a scheme that involved writing claim checks to a fictitious health-care provider. She cashed the checks and kept the money -- until she was arrested before being sentenced in Sept. 2008.

According to Johnson, the scheme unraveled when Buckaloo-Merchant's supervisor conducted spot checks on claim files and discovered an out-of-place medical provider. The astute supervisor noticed that the provider was in Texas, but the claimant lived in the Northeast. When the supervisor investigated and ultimately found no basis to support the payment to the medical provider, she reported it to her company's SIU and began working with TDI.