Will the Real Willie Coachman Please Stand Up?

Not only is one Tampa man in a whole lot of trouble with the law over an alleged fraud scheme, he apparently has a hard time remembering who he is.

Willie Coachman was arrested on August 18th for insurance fraud. And he did what many in that position do, he denied it.  Police say Coachman was selling fake insurance cards.  But Willie Coachman has a different take on that.  When confronted by reporters, he said he is not Willie Coachman, and that he was never even arrested.  In fact, he said he’s never even heard of Willie Coachman.

According to WTSP News and Detective Kevin Morris of the Department of Insurance, they “set up a sting” because Morris had been working for months trying to arrest Coachman. Morris had recovered numerous pages with the names of people who had bought the phony insurance cards.

Morris states that the sting involved a confidential informant who was going to go buy one of those phony cards at a gas station from Coachman’s company, which he called “Low Cost Tag and Title.”  As these are merely allegations at this point and fraud has not been proven, it is still probably not a good idea to buy insurance cards in a gas station parking lot.

Morris says the charge was $150. “She purchased it, got out of the car, gave the signal, and we moved in and made an arrest of Mr. Coachman.”

The Department of Insurance noted that not only was Coachman selling the phony insurance cards, he also had an elaborate scheme for tax fraud in which he apparently took advantage of children that had passed away. Coachman obviously denied that as well.

Morris says there is no question that’s what Coachman was doing. As he explained in previous stories, Morris discovered the organization has notebooks filled with names and social security numbers, as well as lists of children who had died along with their birthdays, addresses, and social security numbers.

Morris says Coachman would get tax checks by using the social security numbers of dead children along with dead adults, and then filling tax returns for the deceased.

Not too far off from the way most people should feel about this crime, Morris states, “I can’t think of anything lower than that.” Morris also notes about Coachman, “he is a very sly individual.”

Police say that Coachman wasn’t acting alone either.  Along with Coachman’s arrest, several others in his organization have also been taken into custody.

According to Morris, the feds are now involved. He told us, “What started out as a bogus insurance investigation, as a phony insurance card case, has turned into a major investigation by the Secret Service.”

Although Willie Coachman says he has no idea who Willie Coachman is, investigators note that they know of thousands who have not only bought the phony insurance cards, but who have also heard of Willie Coachman. Those victims state that they have the evidence they need to send him away for a very long time.