Georgia Insurance Agent Charged with Keeping Premium Refund Checks

A Georgia insurance agent is facing additional charges after she was arrested in July for allegedly keeping premium refund checks that were intended for policyholders.

Kerri Monroe, 48, of Lyons, Georgia, in late July was charged with five counts of identity fraud and seven counts related to the premium refunds, the Georgia insurance commissioner’s office reported. The Toombs County sheriff said the case began in May after a policyholder reported that it had paid premiums but then found out that the insurance company had canceled their policy, according to a local news report.

Monroe’s alleged theft may have been aided by the fact that she also handled accounting and payroll services for local people and businesses, a TV station reported.

The refund checks that were deposited into Monroe’s personal accounts in late 2021 and early 2022 totaled more than $23,000, Insurance Commissioner John King said.

“Our investigation found that the money was moved between several bank accounts and is reasonably believed to have been used for non-business-related purchases,” he said in a statement last month.

This week, King said that investigators had found an additional refund check that did not make it to policyholders.

“It was uncovered that on Sept. 27, 2021, Ms. Monroe deposited one additional insurance premium refund check in the amount of $1,847.74 to her own bank account, which was wholly meant for the victim,” King said.

The victim had a commercial automobile policy through Monroe’s agency, insurance commissioner investigators said. The policyholder was unaware that the policy had been canceled and continued to send payments to a premium finance company, which would then send a premium refund check to Monroe, in the name of the policyholder.

Monroe forged the client’s signature on five of the eight checks, the Georgia investigators said, according to the insurance commissioner’s office.

The office did not name the insurance carriers involved. A web page for Monroe Agency in nearby Vidalia, Georgia, shows Kerri Monroe as agent and owner.

Topics Agencies Georgia