The proprietor of a Pennsylvania collision restore store submitted practically 300 false insurance claims over a number of years to 4 insurance firms, pocketing greater than $426,000 in payouts, in keeping with the Bucks Country District Attorney’s Office.
John Paul Reis, 56, of Newtown Township, turned himself in on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, on fees of insurance fraud, misleading business practices, forgery and theft by deception, all third-degree felonies. He was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Regina Armitage who set bail at $150,000 unsecured.
The fees filed towards Reis are the results of a 4 12 months investigation by the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Insurance Fraud Unit, that started in September 2018 after receiving a referral from Erie Insurance’s Special Investigations Unit that alleged Reis’ Chalfont Collision Center, at 74 Park Avenue, enhanced and/or created injury to clients’ automobiles to inflate insurance estimates.
The investigation discovered that Reis, the proprietor of Chalfont Collision Center, concocted an insurance fraud scheme the place he would wipe a compound combination onto the physique of a number of automobiles and generally strike them with a hammer, making it seem as if the automobiles have been concerned in an accident, so he may invoice insurance firms for more cash.
Because Chalfont Collision Center was a direct restore heart for Erie Insurance and quite a few different insurance firms, the collision heart’s credentials meant they have been verified by the insurance firms and have been licensed to put in writing estimates, full the repairs, and submit the estimate/billing paperwork for fee, rushing up restore time for purchasers.
As the investigation progressed, Bucks County Detectives contacted different insurance firms to see in the event that they’ve additionally had falsified insurance claims from Chalfont Collision. Erie Insurance, Nationwide Insurance, CSAA Insurance Group and Liberty Mutual Insurance collectively recognized 289 estimates that contained synthetic or inflated damages integrated into the true details of the estimates, submitted by Chalfont Collision between 2014 and 2022. The insurance firms recognized $426,233.64 in fraudulent claims paid to the Chalfont Collision Center, together with 185 by Liberty Mutual Insurance for $312,265.83.
Bucks County Detectives, together with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and the Central Bucks Regional Police Department, executed a search warrant at Chalfont Collision on March 25, 2022, seizing proof that included images, recordsdata, and computer systems.
“There is a tendency for some people to think of insurance fraud as a victimless crime,” District Attorney Matt Weintraub stated. “That is, until the financial losses from those fraudulent claims are passed onto us in the form of higher insurance rates. I commend our investigators and prosecutors in our Insurance Fraud Unit for holding Reis and his body shop criminally and financially accountable.”
The investigation was carried out by the Bucks County Detectives, with help of Central Bucks Regional Police Department, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Special Investigations Units for Erie Insurance, Nationwide Insurance, CSAA Insurance Group and Liberty Mutual Insurance. This case is assigned for prosecution to Deputy District Attorney Marc J. Furber.
Source: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office
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