A Hatteras Island man already facing numerous charges, including counts for leading authorities on a vehicle chase in July, has been charged with additional felonies for allegedly filing a fraudulent insurance claim on a capsized sailboat.
According to a North Carolina Department of Insurance news release, George Thomas King, 60, of Salvo, was arrested Wednesday for felony insurance fraud and felony attempting to obtain property by false pretense.
NCDOI criminal investigators allege King attempted to add a sailboat to an insurance policy after the boat had already capsized.
He then attempted to file a claim on the boat on his new policy totalling $10,000, the agents said.
King was released after posting $10,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in Dare County District Court on January 16, 2025.
However, King had a number of outstanding warrants in Dare County for other pending cases.
The claim was filed on July 13, according to the arrest warrants, ten days prior to King being arrested for leading Dare County Sheriff’s Office deputies on a chase from Frisco to Buxton.
On July 23 at approximately 7:13 am, a deputy spotted a vehicle parked at the Frisco Bath House that belonged to King, who was wanted for two outstanding warrants on misdemeanor larceny.
He was accused of stealing two pints of liquor valued at $15.95 from the ABC Store in Buxton on June 17 and June 22, and the warrants were issued on July 9.
The deputy made contact with King, who allegedly did not listen to commands and fled the scene northbound on N.C. Highway 12.
Stop sticks were deployed near Spencer Lane in Frisco to flatten the vehicle’s tires, and it eventually came to a stop in the parking lot of Phillip’s Boat Works in Buxton.
King was charged with felony fleeing/eluding, misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon, misdemeanor resisting arrest, and two traffic violations. He was released after posting $20,000 bond.
Court records show King also faced felony charges of breaking and entering and larceny dating back to Halloween 2023 in Kitty Hawk.
Details of that incident were not available in court documents, but a condition of his release following that arrest included an order to stay away from a Southern Shores address and a resident.
King was taken into custody in November in Carolina Beach on the multiple failure to appear warrants, and was in court in Dare County on Tuesday for those cases.
Documents show King as being homeless, but with Salvo and Wilmington as his cities of residence, and that he was assigned a public defender as counsel in all of the cases against him.
