Fla. Woman Caught Again with Hand in Cookie Jar

A woman, arrested a month ago on charges of stealing more than $100,000 from the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association, has been arrested a second time on charges that she stole more than $310,000 from another insurance company, according to Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher.

Shirley J. Kay, 42, was re-arrested Tuesday on charges of insurance fraud and grand theft. She was booked into the Duval County Jail, with bond set at $500,000. Kay was arrested in March on similar charges. Both arrests were a result of investigations by the Department of Financial Services, Division of Insurance Fraud. If convicted on all charges, she faces as much as 60 years in prison. The 4th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office is prosecuting both setsof charges.

Kay, a claims adjuster, worked at Jacksonville-based Old Dominion Insurance Company from 1997 to 2002. Investigators determined that from around October 1999 to September 2002, she reportedly embezzled more than $310,000 from Old Dominion by writing checks to a fictitious vendor and depositing the checks into her personal checking account.

Investigators said it was the same scheme she reportedly used to embezzle about $104,000 from FIGA, also headquartered in Jacksonville, from 2002 up until last month.