Carolina authorities have charged multiple people, including a roofer and an insurance agent, with defrauding insurance companies.
In North Carolina, Cameron Alexander Hammond, 34, of Vanceboro, was charged in an apparent sting operation with deliberately damaging roof shingles on a home then telling North Carolina Farm Bureau and the state’s wind pool that the damage was caused by wind.
Hammond, employed by Carolina Trophy Roofs, allegedly told the homeowner in Washington, North Carolina, that a full roof replacement was needed, according to the arrest warrant.
“In fact, the roof was in good condition prior to the defendant intentionally damaging 20 shingles by lifting and bending shingles, breaking the seal and causing creases in the shingles for the purpose of making them appear wind damaged,” the warrant explained.
Hammond was released on a $5,000 bond. He has a Dec. 17 court appearance in Beaufort County. The general manager for the roofing company told Insurance Journal that Hammond had been with the firm for just five weeks before the August incident, and was terminated after the company was made aware of the charges. The roofing company does not instruct or encourage its employees to deliberately damage roofs, said Patrick Brownstone, general manager.
“If you hire enough people, sooner or later you’re going to get a bad apple,” he said.
Although the sales team receives a commission on roof work and upselling homeowners, that should not be enough incentive for Hammond to have intentionally creased the shingles, Brownstone said. “We’re not desperate for business,” he said, noting that the company has developed its own app that shows where wind and hail was likely, using weather service data, along with roof age on homes.
The warrant and the NC Department of Insurance did not indicate if the arrest was the result of a sting operation, but Brownstone said it was.
“It was a bait house they were using, apparently,” he noted.
The arrest comes almost a year after NC Farm Bureau worked with DOI investigators to set up a sting operation at a bait house in Wake County. In that operation, roofers were filmed damaging shingles, then claiming it was wind and hail damage.
Two brothers, Brett William Bentley and Robert Allen Bentley, were ordered in September to pay restitution and perform community service work. Robert also was barred from the roofing business during his two-year probation. The roofing company said the men were independent contractors and were not authorized to damage the shingles.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, a licensed insurance producer and sales manager, appointed with two life insurance companies, was charged Oct. 14 with defrauding Aflac, the supplemental accident insurance company.
Jeanette Weaver, of Manning, South Carolina, allegedly submitted false information on disability claims for accomplices, following fabricated incidents, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said. Four others were charged with participating in the scheme.
In one incident, a co-conspirator claimed she was injured in a trampoline accident, and submitted falsified statements and forged signatures from a physician. Aflac paid $5,400 on the claim, the arrest warrant shows.
The warrant and law enforcement bulletin did not explain how the alleged fraud came to light.
The National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s license site shows that Weaver obtained producer’s licenses in 2020 and in 2025.
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Fraud
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