11/14/2018-We would like to congratulate our very own Det. Mike Thompson on receiving this award.

Detective Mike Thompson-South Carolina Insurance Fraud Investigator of the Year Award.

Detective Mike Thompson of the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, Charleston, SC was awarded the 2018 South Carolina Insurance Fraud Investigators Law Enforcement Investigator of the Year Award at the 2018 South Carolina Insurance Fraud Investigators Conference held in Myrtle Beach in November. This award recognizes Law Enforcement for their outstanding public service in the fight against insurance fraud.   Det. Thompson was recognized for initiating numerous vehicle theft investigations associated with questionable insurance claims and coordinating these investigations with SIU Investigators, NICB and State Auto Theft Investigators.  Several cases were highlighted in his nomination for the award. 

An August 2018 investigation resulted in the recovery of a vessel valued at over $30,000 and charges filed on the Insured.   This theft was associated with a claim to State Farm dating back to October 2016.  The Insured purchased a boat off of Face Book and one month after securing the insurance policy, reported the boat stolen and filed a claim.  Two years later, the Insured was in possession of a large boat that did not match the description to the vessel that was registered with the South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources.  Through an extensive investigation that required search warrants, records searches, contacting boat manufacturers and previous owners, and identifying component parts, Det. Thompson was able to identify the boat in the Insured’s possession as the vessel he had reported stolen and filed an insurance claim on.  Det. Thompson was able to obtain a confession from the insured and charged him with False Report of a Crime.  Det. Thompson referred the case to the State Attorney General’s Office for an Insurance Fraud indictment.

In a June 2018 investigation,   Det. Thompson collaborated with SIUs, NICB, and State Auto Theft Investigators involving a case in which the Insured claimed his vehicle was damaged from flood waters from a recent storm. The Insured claimed a Charleston repair shop replaced the engine and sought payment from the insurance company. Investigation by the SIU from Permanent General determined the engine had not been replaced by the repair shop. Detective Thompson coordinated with State Investigators and NICB to conduct a routine inspection of the shop.  The result of the inspection yielded the recovery of three stolen vehicles and a confession by the shop owner that he had not replaced the engine in the initial case and had provided the owner with a fraudulent repair bill.  The repair shop owner was charged and arrested for insurance fraud.

Det. Thompson was also recognized for theft prevention as he adopted the Trailer Identification Project (TIP) that had recently been established by the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, Spartanburg, SC.  The intent of TIP is to provide citizens with a way to register the VIN of their personally owned utility trailers with the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office will engrave trailers with an owner applied number that will be identifiable to Law Enforcement and specific to the agency.  This information is kept on file in the agency’s records system.  Detective Thompson coordinated the effort to establish a TIP event in Charleston with NICB and other surrounding jurisdictions. 

Det. Thompson has been a SEIAATI Member for 5 years and is a State Delegate for South Carolina