Fraud of the Week

July 2, 2018

Auto Arson— Pennsylvania

Amount: Unknown

A woman in Pennsylvania has been charged with insurance fraud and deception for claiming her car was damaged in a collision after she swerved to avoid a deer on the road 4 years ago. The fraud occurred in 2014, and the fraudster claimed that a deer ran in front of her car and when she swerved to avoid it, she ran into a group of trees damaging her 2012 Subaru Legacy. She drove her vehicle to a friend's house where it was towed to a body shop. On the same date, police in a nearby town responded to a call from a man reporting that a white Subaru had struck his vehicle and then left the scene. The victim, conducting his own investigation, located the white Subaru at the body shop. The body shop manager and the evidence custodian at the police department took vehicle parts from the scene where the victim reported the crash and compared them with the Subaru at the body shop. According to the investigators the parts were a "100% match" with the Subaru. The fraudster had filed a claim with her insurer, Erie Insurance, who denied the claim based on the information they had obtained. The car was never recovered from the repair shop, and it eventually was towed and impounded. The fraudster has been released on bond.