The Florida state attorney general announced Monday that his office had obtained a $1.3 million judgment against a Jacksonville debt collection agency stemming from a suit the office filed in mid-2005.

Attorney General Bill McCollum said that Duval Circuit Court Judge L. Haldane Taylor ordered collection agency Ellis Crosby & Associates – and its owner Ted Ellis Crosby – to pay some $1.3 million in restitution and civil penalties for what the judge called the willful violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Business Practices Act and Florida’s Consumer Collections Practices Act. Judge Taylor also placed a permanent injunction on Crosby that will prevent him and his company from engaging in debt collection activities in the state.

Under the judgment, the company will pay $388,000 in restitution, $700,000 in fines and $253,000 in fees and investigative costs.

McCollum’s predecessor, current Florida governor Charlie Crist, filed the suit against Crosby and his company in August 2005. Since the original suit, the Florida AG’s office has hit a number of Jacksonville-area collection agencies with lawsuits (“Florida AG Keeps Hitting Jacksonville Collectors,” Dec. 12, 2007). McCollum became the state’s AG in early 2007, winning election in 2006. 

McCollum said that testimony from victims and witnesses revealed that Crosby and company used tactics such as posing as law enforcement officers, threatening seizure of property, and even threatening bodily harm. More than 380 consumers filed complaints against the firm with the AG’s office.

“This case should put similar operations on notice that the penalties for such deceptive business practices can be very costly,” said McCollum in a statement. “Florida authorities will not tolerate unscrupulous individuals who victimize our citizens in potentially difficult financial situations.”