Florida Man Faked Brain Injury for Years in Attempt to Gain $6.6 Million in Auto Insurance Payout

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 collision 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 to get dressed.

But in May 2023, the alleged fraud scheme went up in smoke. Almost literally.

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 investigations 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.

As of April, George was in jail–but not for long. The couple in February pleaded “no contest” to insurance fraud charges. George was sentenced to 180 days in jail.

Topics Auto Florida