The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) has shut down Britannia International Life & Casualty Ltd., an unlicensed Houston-based company that the TDI says provides back-up coverage for unauthorized health plans covering the employees of nearly 900 companies in 15 states.

Texas Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor has issued an emergency cease-and-desist order to prevent Britannia and Lyndal Ray Stocks, president of Britannia, from selling "stop-loss" coverage to employers participating in United Employers Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association and/or American Benefit plans, unlicensed health plans that the TDI shut down in March 2002. Britannia has continued selling stop-loss coverage to these employers for numerous other health plans across the nation. Health plans buy stop-loss coverage to cap their liability for employee health claims at a specified dollar limit.

"We don't want unlicensed insurance companies operating out of Texas and harming people across the country," Montemayor said. "There are reasons why some people claiming to be insurers don't get licensed, and none of them good."

According to TDI investigators, Britannia uses a number of addresses in Belize, Central America, but they could find no evidence of the company's actual existence there. The TDI says Stocks represents himself as the president of Britannia and operates the business out of an office at 16151 Cairnway Drive in Houston. At Insure.com's request, telephone operators for Houston directory assistance could not locate a listing for the company at that address nor for Lyndal Ray Stocks.

Britannia and Stocks have the right to request a hearing before the TDI to appeal the order to the courts. Violators of an emergency cease-and-desist order may be punished by a fine of up to $25,000 per violation, plus restitution to victims.