Employee accused in $1M theft

A Coral Springs woman who worked as a customer service representative for a Fort Lauderdale-based insurance company funneled more than $1 million of the company’s money to her own bank account, state investigators say.

Jennifer Summerlott was able to get money from the Fairway Insurance Group by what state insurance fraud investigators call “an elaborate scheme” that used fake insurance invoices to reroute company funds for her own financial benefit.

Summerlott, 36, worked as Fairway’s accounts payable and commercial lines manager for nine years.

From 2010 to 2015, Summerlott created and submitted dozens of fake electronic invoices that were supposedly from various companies that routinely did business with Fairway, investigators with Florida’s Division of Financial Services said. After submitting the invoices, Summerlott would prepare company checks to pay them and divert those payments to a personal bank account, investigators said.

Additionally, investigators say Summerlott refinanced 40 insurance policies that Fairway clients had already paid in full. When the company received checks from third-party financing agencies to cover the cost of the premiums, Summerlott used those funds to cover up Fairway’s losses that resulted from “her fake invoice scheme,” Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said in a statement.

Summerlott stole $1,189,654 from her employer, Florida’s Division of Investigative and Forensic Services concluded.

When reached by telephone Wednesday, a representative of the Fairway Insurance Group declined comment.

The investigation that led to Summerlott’s arrest on charges that include grand theft and organized scheme to defraud began in 2015 when other Fairway workers suspected financial irregularities.

Summerlott was arrested Monday and is being held on bonds totaling $300,000. During a hearing scheduled for Thursday, her attorney will be seeking a lower bond, court records show.