Policeman’s Accomplice Pleads Guilty to Insurance Fraud

Columbia, S.C. – April 20, 2009 – James David Morris, 40, of 439 Chester Street, Coward, South Carolina pled guilty in Florence County to Burning Personal Property to Defraud an Insurer. The charge carries a punishment of one to five years in prison. Judge Michael Nettles sentenced Morris to one year suspended to one year probation to terminate upon payment of restitution to State Farm Insurance Company.

On or about July 8, 2008, Robert Brendon Smith, a former Olanta, South Carolina police officer, reported his 2001 Dodge Dakota Truck as stolen from 412 Gause Canal Road in Coward. The truck was valued at over $8,000. The vehicle was found completely burned. It was later determined that Morris had helped Smith burn the truck due to the vehicle’s mechanical problems. The claim to State Farm Insurance Company was eventually withdrawn. Morris' co-defendant, Smith, pled guilty to the same charge on March 2, 2009. The case was prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General's Office.


The South Carolina Insurance News Service reports a few interesting facts related to insurance fraud:

► Insurance fraud costs nearly $120 billion a year, with healthcare fraud at $85 billion a year and property and casualty insurance fraud at $30 billion a year, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

► Each year consumers spend about $300 per household just in additional insurance premiums, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau and about $1,000 in total increased insurance premiums, taxes and cost of goods and services according to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.

► There were 712 complaints of insurance fraud reported to the South Carolina Attorney General's Insurance Fraud Division in 2007. There were 94 criminal convictions and 72 civil remedies.

► The total amount of insurance fraud reported to the South Carolina Attorney General's Insurance Fraud Division in 2007 was nearly $8.4 million.

► Cases have come from all around the state of South Carolina and break down by region as follows:

Piedmont - 28% (115)
Low Country - 24.5% (100)
Pee Dee - 24.5% (100)
Midlands - 23% (95)

► The South Carolina Insurance Fraud Hotline 1-888-95-FRAUD is available toll-free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

► Insurance fraud can be "hard" or "soft." Hard fraud occurs when someone deliberately fakes an accident, injury, theft, arson or other loss to collect insurance money illegally. Soft fraud occurs when someone inflates a claim or underestimates the number of miles driven on an insurance application.

Report Insurance Fraud to the South Carolina Insurance Fraud Hotline 1-888-95-FRAUD - All reports remain confidential.