MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- A man responsible for helping homeowners with insurance claims turned himself in on fraud charges.

Jeffrey Shammah, 35, of 3541 Flamingo Drive in Miami Beach, faces 29 counts of grand theft. He is accused of defrauding both the homeowners who hired him to represent their claims and the insurance company that paid to settle them.

State insurance fraud investigators say more charges are pending and estimate the total loss to American Superior Insurance Company to be more than $47,000.

The investigation found that Shammah, a licensed public adjuster and owner of Shammah Consultants, Inc., was hired by 27 homeowners in Northwest Miami-Dade County to settle their water damage claims against American Superior.

Investigators say that Shammah gave the insurance company fraudulent documents indicating that repairs were planned for the homes, but no construction companies were hired to make the repairs. He then kept large percentages of the money that should have been given to homeowners, investigators say.

Investigators also say that when Shammah received the settlement checks for his clients from the insurance company, he used fraudulent means to convert them to his own use. The checks were deposited in the account of Shammah Consultants. In several cases, investigators say, Shammah provided small payments to the homeowners, indicating that the money represented a far larger percentage of the settlement money than it actually did.

Investigators said that many of the defrauded homeowners did not speak English well, and some left spaces blank on contracts where Shammah filled in his own percentage later.

Anyone with information about this case or other possible fraud is asked to call the Fraud Hotline at 1-800-378-0445.