Fla. Arrests Agent for Forgery, Theft and Exploitation
The Florida Department of Insurance announced that department fraud investigators have arrested insurance agent Alton Michael Haynes III and charged him with six felony offenses. Haynes, 55, is charged with misappropriation of insurance funds, grand theft, security interest fraud, exploiting an elderly person, forgery and uttering a forged instrument.
The fraud investigation was based on a complaint received by department’s Bureau of Agent and Agency Investigations. Investigators allege that Haynes, who last reported his address as 1416 Park Beach Circle in Punta Gorda, stole nearly $46,000 in insurance benefits from an 83-year-old Port Charlotte resident. Haynes was the woman’s insurance agent.
The benefits were derived from her late husband’s life insurance policies. The victim’s husband died in May 2001. The policy was to be paid to the woman upon her husband’s death. Instead, Haynes allegedly forged her name as the endorsement on the checks and deposited the funds into his own account.
He was booked into the Charlotte County Jail.
The department licensed Haynes to sell life insurance in 1992. He was licensed to sell life and health insurance in 2000. If convicted, he could face disciplinary action against his license.