CONTACT: 919/856-4530
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday - June 16, 2005
RALEIGH - United States Attorney Frank D. Whitney announced that TIMOTHY LOYD RAMSEY was
sentenced in federal court in Raleigh on Wednesday, June 15, 2005, for conspiracy to commit mail fraud. U. S.
District Judge Terrence W. Boyle imposed a sentence of 12 months and one day imprisonment and three years
of supervised release. Also, he ordered RAMSEY to pay $196,850.00 in restitution.
RAMSEY, 38, of Magnolia Springs, Alabama, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Raleigh on July 21, 2004, and charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of mail fraud. He pled guilty to the conspiracy charge on February 17, 2005, and the mail fraud charges were dismissed at sentencing, pursuant to the terms of his plea agreement.
According to official documents and evidence presented in court: During the period of June 1, 2001, through
December 15, 2001, RAMSEY and a co-conspirator/employee, CLYDE DOUGLAS MITCHELL, operated
Universal Overspray Removal, a company that contracted to remove paint accidentally blown onto vehicles and
buildings during outdoor painting projects. During the period in question, Universal Overspray was hired by
Ohio Casualty Group, an insurance company, to remove paint damage from three locations, one of which
was in Nags Heads, N. C. In each instance, Universal Overspray would remove paint damage from a small
number of vehicles and then overstate its insurance claim by claiming that it had worked on a large number of
vehicles. In order to support the overstated claims, RAMSEY and MITCHELL photographed undamaged
vehicles located at random locations, such as grocery stores and shopping plazas, and then submitted the
photographs to the insurance company as evidence of vehicles from which paint had been removed. As a
result of the fraudulent scheme, the insurance company mailed checks in payment of the false invoices from its
office in Raleigh, N. C., to RAMSEY's company, Universal Overspray, in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Evidence
showed that RAMSEY and MITCHELL received approximately $200,000.00 in overpayments from the Ohio
Casualty Group as a result of their fraudulent scheme. MITCHELL, 31, of Orange Beach, Alabama, pled guilty
to conspiracy on July 12, 2004, and was sentenced by Judge Boyle on May 6, 2005. He was ordered to serve
five years of probation and pay restitution in the amount of $15,000.00.
Investigation of the case was conducted by the Investigations Division of the N. C. Department of Insurance and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U. S. Attorney Dennis M. Duffy prosecuted the case for the United States.
News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney's web page at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce within 48 hours of release.
