Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Thomas Alexander George, 48, and Tamika Hampton, 42, have been taken into custody on charges of filing a false insurance claim. They allegedly devised an intricate scheme wherein George feigned an inability to speak or walk following a traffic accident, aiming to secure a $6.6 million insurance payout. Their plan was foiled when George was stopped by law enforcement just days after a medical appointment, where body camera footage captured him speaking and walking normally before he fled from the police.

The Florida Department of Financial Services filed an affidavit which indicates that George was involved in a car accident on June 7, 2019, subsequently filing an insurance claim. George and Hampton ostensibly asserted that George had sustained a traumatic brain injury, coupled with cognitive and physical disabilities due to the crash. To support these assertions, George underwent treatment from at least six different medical practitioners over a span of four years.

According to documents from the UF Health Shands emergency room, George was admitted on June 7, 2019, for a concussion and discharged on June 9 with documentation noting that he was “alert and oriented to person, place, and time.” Another note in the medical records indicated that when Hampton arrived to collect him, she claimed he had “called her and stated to come and get him.”

George and Hampton retained a personal injury attorney, who sent a letter to the insurance company in November 2019, beginning the settlement process.

In June 2021, Hampton filed a petition to declare George incapacitated “since he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and now requires assistance with his daily activities.” A court appointed Hampton as George’s legal guardian in November 2021.

A video was provided to the insurance company that showed “what George was like prior to the alleged injury and what his life is like after the alleged injury. The video shows that George rocks, moans, and needs assistance from Hampton walking, using the restroom, getting dressed, and eating.”

In November 2022, Hampton was deposed about George’s condition, and she reportedly said that George has not communicated since the accident. She said that when the medical records say George “advised the doctors,” that was a mistake; she said she had spoken for George since the accident. She said, “I have been present at every visit, every physical therapy,… since this thing began. It’s only been me that has been responding to doctors.”

In December 2022, a doctor created a Catastrophic Life Care Plan for George that estimated his future medical needs at over $8 million. The doctor wrote that Hampton had to answer all questions “as Mr. George is unable to communicate functionally.” The doctor also wrote that George “has difficulty with walking… unable to function and communicate with others due to his brain injury… assistance with his gait… assistance going from sitting to standing.”

In February 2023, a doctor reported that George entered the exam room with a walker and did not respond to questions or simple commands. He wrote, “From the moment he came into the office he had a rhythmic moaning as well as a rhythmic head titubation towards the left.”

Another doctor reported in April 2023 that George “was moaning audibly with every breath and rocking in synch with his breathing.”

In April 2023, George’s lawyers sent a last settlement demand of $6,600,000 to the insurance company.

On May 4, 2023, a doctor saw George and documented that he “still could not walk on his own, mumbled, and made grunting sounds.”

On May 7, 2023, three days later, George was the passenger in a vehicle that was stopped by an Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy. Body camera video from the traffic stop “shows that George, unassisted, spoke to the officer and then exited the vehicle. Other body camera footage from that day shows that George was standing, unassisted, and then shortly after, running away from officers. Ultimately, George was arrested and charged with possession of cannabis and resisting without violence.”

In a January 2024 interview, Hampton reportedly said she did not recall her husband being able to walk on his own until about a week before his arrest. Both George and Hampton reportedly denied exaggerating his condition and said they did not understand how he could get in trouble for getting better.

The doctor who saw George in May 2023 later told an investigator that his review of the body camera video revealed an “antisocial behavior pattern.” He said the new information gave him “a reasonable degree of medical certainty” that George had been engaging in “a type of purposeful deception (malingering).”

The affidavit concludes by stating that George knowingly misrepresented his injuries for an insurance payment of at least $6.6 million and Hampton supported the exaggeration by attending his medical appointments, speaking on his behalf, getting a court order to become his legal guardian, and making a video about his daily life. The investigator further noted that the doctor’s statement that George was unable to speak or walk on May 4 contradicted Hampton’s statement that George started speaking and walking about a week before his arrest.

George and Hampton have both been charged with insurance fraud over $100,000, a first-degree felony.

George has three misdemeanor convictions (non-violent). He was arrested on May 13 and has been released on $35,000 bail.

Hampton has three misdemeanor traffic convictions. She was arrested today on a warrant that set bail at $25,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.