LOS ANGELES—On January 11, 2021, licensed insurance agents Robert Farmer, 65, of Camarillo and Marion Urcan, 67, of Agoura Hills, were arraigned  in Los Angeles County Superior Court on multiple counts of grand theft after allegedly accepting more than $687,000 in insurance premium payments from business owners and misappropriating the money for their personal use.

“The California Department of Insurance employees top-notch investigators whose job it is to investigate, among others, Insurance agents who steal premium money from clients, leaving their clients uninsured and therefore unprotected against potential loss,” said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) President Alan Barcelona.

Farmer and Urcan, doing business as Centerpointe Insurance Services Limited in Camarillo, accepted insurance premium payments from two towing companies in the Los Angeles area.

On June 20, 2019, the California Department of Insurance received a complaint from the owner of one of the towing companies that alleged Centerpointe Insurance Services Limited accepted two checks totaling $391,000 for the company’s commercial auto insurance policy, but Farmer and Urcan did not forward these premium payments to the insurance company. On December 20, 2019, the Department received a complaint from the other towing company that alleged Centerpointe embezzled a $50,000 down payment made toward the renewal of the towing company’s commercial auto insurance policy.

An investigation by the Department of Insurance revealed Farmer and Urcan allegedly accepted more than $687,000 in total from the two towing companies but never sent the payments to an insurance company to secure liability insurance for either business owner, leaving them vulnerable to catastrophic loss.

The Department is taking the appropriate administrative action against the licensees.

Farmer and Urcan  are scheduled to return to court on March 5, 2021. This case is being prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.