Monday a former Charlottesville insurance agent learned the price he will have to pay for scamming people, businesses and even a Charlottesville nonprofit out of thousands of dollars.
Graham Messer, 32, will spend seven months behind bars and pay more than $60,000 in restitution to the 11 victims he scammed.
Investigators say Messer pretended to sell insurance under several company names from an office on Berkmar Drive. He took customer’s money, but never filed their policies.
http://liarcatchers.com/insurance_fraud.html
Messer accepted full responsibility for his actions, saying words can’t express how sorry he feels for his actions.
The prosecution says the outcome is fair. “The court very carefully examined what the sentencing guidelines were, which were a set of guidelines which dictate what people all across the United States get for this kind of offense. The court very carefully weighed those, the impact on the community, but also the efforts the defendant has made to accept responsibility,” said Elliott Casey, a special assistant United States attorney.
One of the victims includes The Piedmont House, a nonprofit transition home for men who have been released from prison.
Messer received more than $32,000 from this organization alone under false pretenses.
Along with the jail time and restitution, Messer will have to spend seven months confined to his home as part of his three years of supervised release.
