Former Vallejo insurance broker Jimmie Earl Jackson, who pled guilty to felony grand theft in Solano County Superior Court May 5, was sentenced to 180 days in County Jail and ordered to serve three years of formal probation. Jackson must begin serving his jail term within 30 days. A restitution hearing will be scheduled for June.
As a result of a joint investigation by the California Department of Insurance Investigation Division and the Vallejo Police Department, Jackson was charged with grand theft by embezzlement, embezzlement of property of an elder adult, and an Insurance Code violation for transacting insurance without a license.
In April 2003, the Vallejo Police Department discovered that Jackson, though no longer licensed by CDI, continued to sell insurance from his Jaxon Insurance Services office on Georgia Street. CDI investigators later that month served a search warrant on that location.
CDI had revoked Jackson’s insurance license in September 2001 for accepting premium money from a client and failing to obtain a valid insurance policy. During the course of the investigation it was learned that one Vallejo resident paid Jackson over $700 for a homeowner’s policy in June of 2002. Jackson cashed the client’s check and gave the client a bogus insurance certificate as proof of coverage.
In October 2002, a fire caused over $50,000 in damage to the client’s property. Investigators determined the policy number on the insurance certificate was phony and that no insurance company had ever received any premium money from Jackson.
Contractor Sentenced in Comp Fraud Case
The owner of a Corona, California-based construction firm has begun serving a two-year jail sentence as part of his conviction on felony workers’ comp insurance fraud.
Lawrence S. Hatfield, of Orange County, owner of Builders Framing Inc., was sentenced on April 12 in Riverside County Superior Court where he was convicted on five counts of workers’ comp insurance fraud. A judge also ordered Hatfield to pay State Compensation Insurance Fund $605,940 in restitution after defrauding the workers’ comp insurer. Hatfield’s contractor’s license is also being forfeited.
State Fund insured Builders Framing Inc., which specializes in new home framing projects in Riverside County, from 2002 through 2004.
A call to State Fund tipped district policy fraud investigators to conduct a review of the company’s workers’ comp policy. An internal investigation, which included review of payroll reports, unemployment documents and wage records, reportedly revealed policy-reporting discrepancies. State Fund forwarded its report of suspected workers’ comp fraud to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office and the Department of Insurance for their review.
The District Attorney’s office later obtained a search warrant and seized company records to conduct an audit of Hatfield’s business. The DA’s office uncovered Builders Framing Inc. underreported payroll, misclassified wages, failed to report wages paid in cash and failed to properly report several company employee injuries. Hatfield reportedly paid out of pocket medical costs of injured employees and did not report work injuries to State Fund.
Based on the audit, State Fund estimated Hatfield’s total fraud to have been $1,316,584.
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