State agents are working hard to enforce a new law passed to keep unscrupulous roofers from climbing the ladder of success to defraud insurance companies. Under the law, roofers are no longer allowed to pay a storm victim's insurance deductibles or file claims on their behalf.
Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens who says he wants to send a message, recently sent out two undercover state agents to target Ronnie Baker and several other roofers.
State officials say Baker advertised a promise that sent up immediate red flags, “Storm victims pay zero deductible.”
To set up the sting, the state rented a house and first brought in Frank Domonousky, a certified inspector. He reported that the roof was “in good condition.” There was no hail-or storm-related damages.
The Fraud Squad with the insurance commissioner's office and a local news channel set up hidden cameras. Baker was invited to look at the roof. The cameras, however, show him doing more measuring than inspecting. When finished, Baker claimed the house needed a new roof and offered a bargain.
“Don't tell them I'm paying your deductible or they'll just deduct that from us. Legally I can't do that,” Baker told the undercover agents. He returned later to photograph the supposed damage.
Cameras caught Baker digging his finger into the shingles over and over again; each time ending with a chalk mark for the insurance company. He's even shown taking a bolt from the TV antenna on top of the house, using it to twist into a shingle and manufacture damage.
The roof, deemed hail free earlier by an inspector, suddenly seems a pelted mess.
Baker insisted the damage was there and he was only making it easier to see. “I'm not a crook. I don't have to. I don't have to commit a crime to get paid,” Baker said as he was handcuffed by undercover agents. “I think it's outrageous.”
Baker wasn't the only one caught angrily by surprise.
“Man, I'm just glad you're covering this damn deductible for me,” said an undercover agent to one of the roofers who showed up for an inspection.
“Oh yeah, that is no problem, man,” said Daniel Barry who was with fellow roofer Kenneth McKenzie. Both are from American Roofing Co.
Barry was seen using a penny to scratch off the granules on the shingles to manufacture hail damage. He claimed, however, that he was only trying to make previous damage more visible.
According to the inspector, Domonousky, it's more like vandalism. “He actually rubbed right through the shingle to the fiber backing on the bottom half, and basically damaged this shingle for life,” he explains.
Hudgens says the felony fraud charges against all three roofers caught allegedly roughing up the roof will stand.
“When it's not prosecuted the message doesn't get out and it says it's perfectly OK to defraud an insurance company. Well it's not,” Hudgens says.
Three other roofers, whose inspection did not warrant arrest, will get warnings for the promises to pay the deductible. In addition to the three arrested for felony insurance fraud, investigators are still gathering evidence against a fourth roofer.
According to the insurance commissioner's office 12 to 18 percent of the money homeowners pay in premiums goes to cover the cost of fraud. With this new law, however, comes the hope of stopping every 'shingle' fraudster.
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