Four jailed for staging car accident to rip off insurer
By Lu Chen Source:Global Times Published: 2013-3-26 23:48:01
Four men have been sentenced to time behind bars for staging a car accident in Jing'an district so they could collect the insurance money, the district court announced Tuesday.
The four defendants, who were only identified by their surnames, were each charged with insurance fraud, according to a press release from Jing'an District People's Court. Feng and Zhao were from Hebei Province; Chu was from Henan Province; and Gao was from Jiangsu Province.
In May 2011, three of the men drove their cars to Suide Road to stage the accident, positioning their vehicles in a straight line.
Once they were set up, Feng drove his Buick Excelle into the back of a second vehicle, which then hit the van at the front of the line, the court said. He then called the police.
Police found that Feng was at fault for the traffic accident. He filed a claim with an insurance company under someone else's name and the group collected a 61,000 yuan ($9,821) payout. However, the insurance company thought the case was suspicious, so it reported it to police in August 2012. The investigation spooked three of the defendants, who turned themselves in after police began looking into the case. Police caught the fourth man, Chu, in October 2012.
The defendants confessed that they staged the traffic accident to scam the insurance company out of money. The four men received sentences ranging from six months in criminal detention to two years in prison. The court said it gave them lenient sentences.