Three friends have each been sentenced to one to two years of probation for forging an official traffic accident report so one of them could file an insurance claim, a district court said Tuesday.

The three defendants were charged with insurance fraud for giving false statements in the claim, according to a press release from the Jing'an District People's Court.

They hatched the scheme after one of the three, whom the court called Zhao Xiao, hit a taxi while driving under the influence of alcohol on November 10, the court said. 

Zhao fled the scene and called one of his friends, whom the court called Xiao Hui, to come pretend he had been driving the car instead of Zhao. He then called the police to report the crash.

The court noted that Xiao knew that Zhao had been driving drunk.

The traffic police officers determined that the driver of Zhao's car should bear full responsibility for the crash because he had left the scene.

Typically, insurance companies won't cover claims by drivers who leave the scene of an accident, the court said.

With the help of another friend, Zhao forged a traffic accident report and faked the official stamp so he could file a 62,600 yuan ($10,225) claim with his car insurance company, the court said.

Because the auto insurance company found the accident report suspicious, it refused to settle the claim and alerted the police.

The court sentenced the men to two years in prison, but allowed them to serve probation instead because their attempt to defraud the insurance company did not succeed.

The three will have to serve time in prison if they fail to meet the terms of their probation.