Fraud of the Week

Auto Fraud – Idaho

Amount – Unknown

An Idado woman was involved in an auto accident in August of 2022 and sustained front-end damage. The vehicle left the scene, but not before a witness could get a picture of the car and license plate number. The driver of the vehicle obtained new license plates the following day. A few days later she was stopped for a routine traffic stop, and given a citation for failure to have insurance. The police officer's body camera captured damage to the front end of the vehicle during the traffic stop. She obtained insurance shortly after the traffic stop as required. A few weeks later she filed a claim with her new insurance company claiming her vehicle was parked and hit by an unknown vehicle. She submitted photos of the damage to the insurer. However, the damage was identical to the damage revealed by the police officer's body camera before she had purchased the insurance policy. She pled guilty to one count of felony insurance fraud. She was sentenced to four years in prison, two fixed and two indeterminate which was suspended to four years of supervised probation. She was ordered to spend 30 days in jail, complete 16 hours of a Healthy Thinking class, pay restitution to the Department of Insurance, and pay $350 to the public defender. The judge also ordered an additional 50 days of discretionary jail time which can be imposed by her probation officer if there are any problems while she is on probation.