A Laguna Beach insurance agent has been arraigned following allegations of stealing from small business owners.
Erin Lee McCarroll, 49, has been arraigned on 27 felony counts, including grand theft and forgery, following an investigation by the California Department of Insurance. The investigation revealed that McCarroll allegedly misappropriated over $62,000 in insurance premiums from a minimum of 10 California business owners.
The department initiated the investigation after receiving several consumer complaints alleging that McCarroll, operating under the name Erin McCarroll Insurance Services, accepted premium payments from clients and allegedly used the funds for her personal expenses.
The investigation uncovered a series of incidents that transpired between June 2017 and November 2019. During this period, McCarroll purportedly failed to remit premium payments from the 10 victims. These victims were unaware that McCarroll had misappropriated their premium payments and had not secured the insurance coverage they believed they had.
The victims in this case were primarily contractors and small business owners who were legally obligated to provide workers' compensation coverage for their employees to safeguard against work-related injuries. Additionally, they also sought and remitted payments to McCarroll for general liability policies, which were never obtained. The absence of these policies exposed the victims to potential uninsured claims and substantial financial losses.
McCarroll employed a deceptive tactic by generating and distributing fraudulent certificates of insurance. These fraudulent certificates served to falsely indicate proof of valid insurance coverage, enabling the victims to bid on contracts with the belief that they had the insurance policies they had purchased from McCarroll.
Elsewhere in the state, CSE Insurance Group recently announced its decision to phase out coverage in California, becoming the latest carrier to withdraw from the state in recent months.
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