It seems that we are not the only ones to suffer from insurance fraud. As the Irish Insurance Federation estimated costs of fraudulent claims reacing €100 million a year, the district attorney of Suffolk County, New York, has announced the indictment of 85 people involved in a scheme to claim for staged car accidents and fraudulent injuries.
Thomas Spota said the fraud ring consisted of doctors, lawyers, health care workers, investors, "runners" hired to stage accidents and help document fake injuries and "passengers" hired to be in "accidents". The group targeted one insurance firm, from which they claimed $48 million in injuries and damages for more than 100 accidents, officials said.
A further 481 grand jury indictments are in the pipeline in this case alone, said Spota.
The accidents were staged in Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens. According to police, the typical scheme involved two drivers in separate cars and a targeted third car. One of the two cars that were part of the scheme - usually a Lincoln Town car - would swerve in front of the second car in the scheme, forcing it to suddenly brake in front of the target. A "runner" would hire four passengers to ride in the second car, which would usually be "rear-ended" by the target.
After the accident, the Lincoln driver would leave the scene with the driver of the second car and one of the four hired passengers would tell police he was the driver. The four would not complain of injuries at the time but would later go to a clinic where they would undergo a battery of tests. Fake injuries were documented by doctors, who were part of the scheme.
The passengers would file no-fault claims and, in some cases, a lawyer who was part of the ring would also sue the targeted driver to collect insurance money on supposedly severe injuries. About 70 per cent of those cases settled out of court, prosecutors said.
- Washington Post