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Wayne Durfey, an unlicensed contractor from Santa Ana, California, was arrested as a result of an undercover investigation conducted jointly by the Department of Insurance and the Contractors State License Board.
Investigators disclosed that Durfey visited a residence in Long Beach to give an estimate for a new solar heating system. Unbeknownst to Durfey, however, undercover investigators were already at the residence to witness his sales pitch. According to investigators, Durfey’s actions turned fraudulent after learning that the residence had suffered some wind damage when a tornado touched down in Long Beach during a storm.
Durfey told undercover investigators how they could get a new solar heating system by allowing him to submit a phony repair estimate to their insurance company for a nonexistent solar system. According to investigators, Durfey described in detail how he could provide the remnants of a damaged solar heating system to the residence and make it appear that the recent storm had blown the system off the roof. Durfey provided investigators with a bogus repair estimate for both “emergency repairs” to the nonexistent solar system and a completely new system to replace the one that did not exist. Upon delivering the damaged solar heating system that was to be used to defraud the insurance company, Durfey was arrested and charged with insurance fraud.
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