N.J. Roofing Co. Exec Admits to Misleading Its Workers’ Comp Carrier

April 17, 2014

Authorities said the president of a roofing company in New Jersey pleaded guilty to providing false and misleading information to the company’s workers’ compensation carrier in order to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premiums that he was obligated to pay.

Authorities said Charles Kelcy Pegler Sr. pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree insurance fraud. He was charged in a December 2013 state grand jury indictment.

Sentencing is scheduled for June. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Pegler be sentenced to 180 days in county jail as a condition of five years of probation. He previously paid full restitution to New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company. The plea agreement also requires him to pay $134,087 to Atain Insurance Company.

Pegler was the president of Roof Diagnostics Inc. in Monmouth County, N.J. The company employs some 400 people. In pleading guilty, Pegler admitted that between June 2003 and October 2009, he created the false impression to New Jersey Casualty Insurance Company, a subsidiary of New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company, that his company was not a roofing company, that it did not employ roofers and that it did not install, maintain and/or repair roofs.

Authorities said an investigation by the New Jersey Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor determined that, as a result of the alleged crime, Roof Diagnostics Inc. paid $265,044 less in workers’ comp insurance premiums than it should have.

Pegler further admitted that in 2009, he created the false impression to USF Insurance Company, now called Atain Insurance Company, that all roofing and re-roofing services offered by Roof Diagnostics Inc. were performed by subcontractors. Through this fraud, Pegler avoided paying $134,087 in general liability insurance premiums which he owed to the insurance company, according to authorities.

Source: Office of The Attorney General

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Topics Carriers Fraud Workers' Compensation New Jersey

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