When Thomas A. George and Tamika Hampton decided to defraud an auto insurer in 2019, they went big—claiming that George was so severely injured in a crash that he could no longer walk or talk, according to court documents.
The Gainesville, Florida, couple’s attorney made a settlement demand to General Star National Insurance Co. for $6.6 million, contending that George would need lifetime care for an incapacitating brain injury from the crash with an oil company truck. A video sent to the insurance carrier showed the man limited to moaning, rocking, and needing assistance to use the restroom and get dressed.
But in May 2023, the alleged fraud scheme went up in smoke.
George, 49, was a passenger in car that was stopped by an Alachua County sheriff’s deputy. George spoke freely to the officer, exited the vehicle without assistance, then sprinted away from the officer, apparently after the deputy discovered marijuana in his possession, according to body camera video and the arrest affidavit.
Allied Universal Compliance & Investigations, the special investigation unit for General Star National, tipped off investigators with the Florida Department of Financial Services. Those investigators interviewed George and Hampton six months after the accident. The couple said George had regained his ability to walk just days before his May arrest. They did not understand how he could get in trouble for getting better, the investigator wrote in the affidavit.
A neurologist who examined George said he understood.
“This new information brings to the forefront the greater likelihood that the nonphysiologic behaviors we had often observed in the office would within a reasonable degree of medical certainty represent a type of purposeful deception (malingering),” the physician noted, according to the arrest information.
Today, George is in jail—but not for long. The couple in February pleaded “no contest” to insurance fraud charges. An Alachua County judge sentenced George to 180 days in jail, four years of probation, and $1,734 in restitution to the Department of Financial Services for investigation costs incurred.
Hampton was sentenced to probation and the same restitution. She may serve community service in lieu of paying court costs, the judge noted.
Topics
Florida
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