Former Licensed California Agent Faces Insurance Fraud Charges

A former licensed California insurance agent has been charged with 11 felony counts including identity theft, grand theft and embezzlement after allegedly writing 162 fraudulent policies in an attempt to gain unearned commissions.

The California Department of Insurance began an investigation into Paul Kirton, 51, of Bozeman, Montana, after an insurance company was reportedly notified by one of their insureds that they were not employed by the company listed on their policy.

The investigation reportedly revealed that Kirton wrote 162 policies for 38 policyholders under “company groups” who were never employed with the companies, making the individuals ineligible to be placed on the company group accounts. This caused the insurance company to allegedly pay out more than $182,376 in unauthorized claim benefits on fraudulent policies, according to the CDI.

Investigators also reportedly discovered Kirton submitted other policy applications for individuals who did not authorize the policy applications, and provided false personal information for individuals which resulted in Kirton being paid more than $35,000 in illegal advance commissions.

Kirton was arrested in late March in Bozeman, Montana and is currently awaiting extradition. His lawyer appeared in court this week on his behalf. The case is being prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.