Alleged Delray psychic, husband arrested on insurance fraud charges
By Nancy L. Othón 
Staff Writer
Posted May 8 2002
DELRAY BEACH · Psychic
Linda Marks and her husband were arrested Tuesday on insurance fraud charges, a
move that police say signals the beginning of an investigation into Marks'
"continuing criminal enterprise."
Marks,
54, and her husband, James Marks, 48, are accused of hiding a 1999 Chevrolet
pickup truck that they reported stolen last year. An insurance company later paid
the lender $19,675 for the loss of the vehicle, which the couple kept in a
Deerfield Beach storage unit, according to police reports. Both were charged with
insurance fraud, grand theft and filing a false police report.
Though the charges have nothing to do with her psychic business on Federal
Highway, police said Tuesday said they have received several complaints from
people, most of them elderly, alleging that Marks swindled them out of thousands
of dollars.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to present all of the cases as part of a continuing
criminal enterprise," said Detective Robert Stevens. "She preys on people that are
very mentally unstable or terminally ill."
Most recently, Stevens said, an 88-year-old New York woman with property in
Boynton Beach transferred the title of her condo to Marks in return for psychic
services. Marks returned the title after the woman complained.
Marks also billed $14,000 to the woman's credit card to renovate the kitchen in
the Markses' Delray Beach home, Stevens said.
Neither Linda Marks nor her husband responded to reporters' questions Tuesday
afternoon as they walked out of the police station.
"Americans are so ... dumb," Linda Marks said as she was put into a police car to
be taken to the Palm Beach County Jail.
Police say the truck was reported stolen in August. About the same time, James
Marks rented a storage unit in Deerfield Beach.
After managers at Deerfield Self Storage Unit notified James Marks by certified letter
that he was late with payment on the unit, they notified the Broward County
Sheriff's Office. Deputies found the truck, with passenger-side and front-end
damage, and realized the vehicle had been reported stolen.
Attorney Barry Silver, who filed a lawsuit against Marks in February on behalf of
an 86-year-old West Boynton Beach man, said the arrest was "better late than
never."
He said he is amending his lawsuit to add several plaintiffs. That lawsuit also
named the Delray Beach Police Department, alleging that a detective closed cases
against Linda Marks without arresting her.
The lawsuit alleges that Leroy Hoffert, diagnosed with terminal leukemia, was
swindled into paying Marks thousands of dollars in return for a cure.
Stevens said Marks has refunded clients to avoid arrest, but her practice shows a
"continuing pattern of fraud."
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