800 Suspect Auto Claims in Sacramento County, CA

More drivers on the road during summer months means more car crashes, but not all of them may be for real.

More than 800 insurance claims in Sacramento County in the fiscal year ended June 30 are suspect and may have involved staged collisions, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced Thursday. The 802 suspected fraudulent claims in 2007-08 is down from 856 a year earlier, but up from 788 in 2005-06, the state insurance regulator announced.

This translates to potential losses of $5.6 million in the last fiscal year alone.

Statewide, 14,623 out of 23,734 — 61 percent — of the insurance fraud referrals received by the state agency in the last fiscal year were suspected automobile insurance fraud.

People who create pre-planned accidents are known as “stagers.” They look for high-value targets such as commercial vehicles, expensive luxury cars or vehicles owned by cities or counties. They are considered high value because of the virtual guarantee of insurance coverage.

Canoe Man and Wife Jailed For Six Years

John and Anne Darwin were each jailed for more than six years today for carrying out a £250,000 insurance con by faking his death in a canoeing accident.

John Darwin was jailed for six years and three months. His wife Anne was sentenced to six years and six months after she was found guilty of her role in the fraud.

The couple tricked the police, insurance companies and even their two sons Mark, 32, and Anthony, 29, into believing he drowned in the North Sea in 2002 - only for Mr Darwin to turn up at a London police station last year.

They were undone by a photograph of the grinning couple taken in Panama four years after he disappeared.

Plastic Surgeon's Perfect Life Marred

His plastic-surgery training in hand, Lawrence Saks left the Canadian winters he hated in the early 1980s and headed for what may be the world's most welcoming market for such medical specialists: esthetically obsessed southern California.

It was a profitable move. The product of a hardscrabble Quebec City upbringing, Dr. Saks built a fortune in the millions of dollars and forged a reputation as a generous philanthropist.

But that enviable life is suddenly on the brink of collapse. The 56-year-old doctor has been charged with US$4-million in insurance fraud and other crimes, allegedly for claiming handsome disability benefits for himself while continuing to do tummy tucks, facelifts and other surgery. As it turns out, the fraud case is only the latest and most damning in a string of brushes with the law and medical regulators.

Why Is Car Insurance Fraud On The Increase?

If ever there was a self fulfilling prophecy then the car insurance market may well be it!

A recent report by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) claims that car insurance fraud in the UK has increased by 70% over the last 3 years. As the cost of running a car continues to spiral upwards many drivers are being left with very few ways of paying off their debts. The fact that one such car insurance fraudster was found to have literally pushed his car off a cliff may be a little over the top (literally!), but there are also many other examples of drivers becoming desperate.

Woman Pleads Guilty In Fraud

A Paulsboro woman pleaded guilty Friday for stealing more than $190,000 from an insurance company, Attorney General Anne Milgram said.

Julia Daniels Anderson, 41, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Robert Becker to a criminal accusation which charged her with theft by deception.

Daniels Anderson admitted that between Aug. 3, 2004, and March 8, 2007, she stole $190,802 from Cigna Insurance Co. by submitting false health care claims.

Cash-Strapped Citizens Fake Break-ins

Many South Africans are reporting false hijackings, housebreakings and other theft claims in order to get rid of their monthly repayments and be paid out by insurance companies.

Insurance investigators report that there has been an increase in the number of people staging housebreakings to make money from insurance policies or claiming their vehicles were hijacked or stolen because they could no longer afford them.

Marius Heystek, a senior partner at AM Heystek and Associates, which specialises in insurance fraud, said the problem of false insurance claims had "always been there", but had now increased. "It is very clear when a house has not been broken into as the owner claims," he said.