More Charges Filed Against N.C. Agency Owner

North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Jim Long announced that Mary Grantham Hicks, the owner of Swift Creek Insurance and Realty who was arrested on charges of insurance fraud two weeks ago, was arrested by Department of Insurance investigators again last Friday.

Hicks, 58, of Apex, was charged with 10 counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, on top of the one count of embezzlement and one count of obtaining property by false pretenses from Aug. 4. She was processed at the Wake County Jail under a $30,000 secured bond.

Investigators allege that following her well-publicized arrest earlier this month, more witnesses came forward and new evidence suggests Hicks continued to collect premiums for fraudulent workers' comp policies.

From the arrest on Aug. 4, investigators alleged the following:

Hicks was a licensed insurance agent providing workers' comp coverage for local commercial construction contractors and subcontractors. In at least one case, Hicks took payment from a client but failed to remit that payment to the insurance company. Instead, she falsified a certificate of insurance and presented that as proof of coverage.

An employee with the client company later suffered an accident in which another victim made a claim against the workers' comp policy. It was at this point the client company realized the insurance was fraudulent, and the Department of Insurance was notified.