RVC resident charged with stealing thousands

A Rockville Centre man has been accused of stealing more than $870,000 from two insurance companies, according to Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

Gerard Timoney, 54, was arrested on Sept. 26 and arraigned on Sept. 28 on two counts of second-degree grand larceny for actions that allegedly left homeowners without mortgages, titles to their property or liability coverage.

According to a press release from the D.A. on his arrest, Timoney is a policy issuing agent and the former owner of Titleguard Land Services Inc., which used to be headquartered in Rockville Centre.

A large portion of Titleguard’s business consisted of searching real estate titles, preparing certificates and reports of title and appearing at real estate closings. After the closings, Titleguard was responsible for issuing title insurance policies, accepting deeds and mortgages for recording, accepting funds to pay fees and taxes and securing payment of real estate taxes in the name of two insurance companies that hired Timoney, Stewart Title Insurance Company and Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company.

An audit conducted by Commonwealth in August 2009 discovered that Timoney had not filed mortgages, paid mortgage taxes or recorded deeds for 12 properties in 2008 and 2009, including two properties in Nassau County. Commonwealth took a loss of more than $270,000.

Stewart conducted a similar audit in June 2010 and found that Timoney had done the same thing for 90 other properties from 2007 to 2010, including 38 in Nassau County. Stewart lost more than $600,000.

According to Rice’s office, Timoney used the money that he stole to pay his child support, credit card debt, personal expenses and his office’s payroll, and also to maintain his other properties and businesses. “This defendant not only stole from the clients who trusted him with their money, but he created a situation where families could have lost their homes and insurance companies could have faced additional huge financial losses,” Rice said. “Purchasing a home in today’s economy is difficult enough without scam artists like Mr. Timoney picking the pockets of every hard-working man and woman unfortunate enough to have put their faith in him.”

His attorney, Glenn Hardy, did not return calls for comment by the time the Herald went to press.

Timoney, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was held on $100,000 bail.