SOUTH ABINGTON TOWNSHIP, PA
A 41-year-old insurance agent faces felony charges for allegedly defrauding or stealing the premiums from three clients: Diaz Forest Products, Diaz Stone and Pallet and Diaz Manufacturing, police said Wednesday.
Timothy Hewitt, of South Abington Twp., was charged Tuesday with counts of insurance fraud, forgery, theft and unlicensed broker/agent activity by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Task Force.
Allegations police detailed against Hewitt include:
- Allowing Diaz Forest Products’ workers compensation policy to lapse but continuing to bill the business for the premium. The company is in Harford Twp. in Susquehanna County.
- Allowing four Diaz Manufacturing policies to lapse in the 2016-17 policy period despite the company remitting the full annual premiums to Hewitt. Diaz Manufacturing is in Montrose.
- Overbilling Diaz Stone and Pallet $129,650 for four policies in 2016-17 and attempting to overbill the business $61,390 for four policies in 2017-18. One of the policies lapsed and wasn’t in effect when Hewitt billed Diaz Stone and Pallet, which also is in Harford Twp., for the premium.
In criminal complaints, Detective Joseph Sarkis, who works for the Wyoming County District Attorney’s Office and is a member of the task force, described a range of allegations including Hewitt creating insurance cards for six vehicles that weren’t actually insured and issuing certificates of insurance when policies weren’t in effect.
Sarkis described Hewitt broadly denying wrongdoing charge by charge in interviews with police.
For example, Hewitt said he did not overbill Dias Stone and Pallet. Rather, he said he had an arrangement with company officials that they would pay him extra through premiums for additional work he did, such as helping with fleet management and working to get the best possible rate on auto policies — which the company denied.
“Hewitt agreed that any invoice that was provided was paid in full by Diaz,” Sarkis wrote. “He acknowledged that any lapse in coverage of any policy would not be the fault of Diaz. He stated that he was unaware of any lapse in coverage of any of Diaz’s policies. He stated that there was a period of time where his P.O. box was closed, and perhaps that is when he received notices of lapses in coverage.”
Hewitt was arraigned Wednesday and released on $20,000 unsecured bail.
Web search shows that Timothy Hewitt was associated with Associated Insurance Agency (AIA) of PA. He has an email address with that business.
Aia Of Pa is a Pennsylvania Fictitious Name filed on February 28, 2011 . The company's filing status is listed as Active and its File Number is 4018126. The company's principal address is 5 Zimmerman Street, Clarks Summit, PA 18411.
The company has 2 principals on record. The principals are Associated Insurance Agency Of Pa, Inc. from Clarks Summit PA and Timothy Hewitt from Clarks Summit PA.
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SOUTH ABINGTON TOWNSHIP, PA — An insurance agent in Lackawanna County is accused of theft and fraud for overbilling clients and charging clients for insurance policies that had lapsed.
Investigators said Timothy Hewitt, 41, of South Abington Township, overbilled clients $129,650 for insurance policies in 2016-2017.
He is also accused of trying to bill clients for lapsed policies and creating fake insurance documents to facilitate the overbilling.
Hewitt was arraigned Wednesday on charges of insurance fraud, forgery, theft, and other charges. He was released on bail.