Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog
According to an article at News4Jax.com, police arrested nineteen people they say were involved in a large car insurance scheme in the Jacksonville, Florida area and other parts of Florida. When a person purchases an automobile in Florida, he/she is required to also purchase insurance for the vehicle. While the insurance laws change frequently, as of last year, vehicle owners were required to have Personal Injury Protection insurance, or PIP insurance, which was basically like no fault insurance. If a person with PIP insurance was involved in an accident, the PIP insurance would cover his/her medical bills for injuries sustained in the accident up to a certain amount, often $10,000, regardless of who was at fault for the accident.
According to Florida state investigators, certain people were committing fraud related to PIP insurance by staging accidents and getting the people involved in the alleged accidents to fake injuries and pretend to get treatment at a medical facility that presumably offers medical treatment. That facility then bills the insurance company for PIP insurance benefits for treatment that was never provided. According to the state investigators, about eighty alleged fake accident victims were involved in this scheme and an estimated $228,000 in fraudulent PIP insurance claims were made. As a result, the state investigators arrested people who allegedly were involved in the staged accidents, people who allegedly recruited the people to participate in the staged accidents and people allegedly involved with the clinics who made the claims for PIP benefits to the insurance companies. The state investigators apparently have more warrants outstanding for additional people they allege were involved in the car insurance fraud scheme.