Victorville Man Allegedly Commits Car Insurance Fraud
The topic of car insurance fraud is one that makes insurance companies frustrated because they feel as though policy holders often try to take advantage of them. Fraud is something that costs policy holders a lot in premium payments. For every fraudulent claim that is filed, money must be removed from the insurance pool not only to replace the compensation but to pay for the investigation as well.
A 25 year old man from Victorville has found himself in some hot water after he allegedly committed two felonious acts of car insurance fraud. The man’s name is Luis Carlos Culebro and he was arraigned already and he entered a plea of not guilty. His court case will continue on October 31, 2012. The crime that he has been charged with could land him behind bars for more than six years.
Allegedly, the young man filed an insurance claim with two insurance companies for the same damage to his vehicle. The man had been driving his car in the High Desert and it became damaged due to a sand storm so he filed a claim. However, the car insurance company was suspicious of the claim so they decided to contact the District Attorney’s Auto Insurance Fraud Prosecution Unit. The unit decided to assign investigators to the claim to see if it was in fact a fraudulent one.
The investigation found that the man had indeed filed a claim with another insurance company listing the same damage to the vehicle as the reason for the claim. The investigators also pulled the man’s cell phone records and found that the date and time did not match the location of where he said he was when the alleged damage occurred to the vehicle.
Some people do try to do this so that they can collect insurance money from multiple companies. It is important for insurance providers to investigate claims that they think are fishy because often a gut reaction is the correct one. This man is innocent until proven guilty but often in these cases there are plea bargains because investigators often have a long paper trail to prove that insurance fraud did in fact take place.
With so many families dealing with poor economic circumstances, many men and women try to hatch schemes to get money however they can. They do not think twice about it even though the crime is a felony in most states. Drivers need to not only be deterred from committing the offense but they also need to be educated on the consequences. Thousands of people commit insurance fraud every year and sadly many of them do not learn their lesson until they are facing long prison sentences. The man in question is a prime example of this.
