FL Authorities Continue Crackdown on Staged Crashes

If insurance fraud were a person, it would be able to run; and it would be running rampant in Florida.

Floribel Figueroa Quiles submitted almost $50,000 in medical claims to her insurance company for injuries that she and her children had suffered after their car was hit by a truck in Pinellas Park back in October.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, the invoices supposedly came from TLC Medical Rehab LLC, where the driver of the truck in the accident, Lazaro Hernandez Cabrales, was said to be working.

It isn’t the first time, and it definitely won’t be the last, but authorities state that the injury claims were a scam.

Sometime during the past week, Cabrales was arrested at his Tampa home, while Quiles was arrested in Osceola County, and they were both charged with insurance fraud by staging an accident.

The arrests are the latest among about 201 for personal injury protection fraud so far this year by the insurance division of the state Department of Financial Services. That’s up 55 percent from 130 arrests during the same period last year.

Since the growing problem in Florida with false claims came to light last year, the department has been cracking down on insurance fraud.

“It is always a great day when we are able to track down one of these fraudsters who, by their actions, cause each and every Floridian to pay more for auto insurance,” said Jeff Atwater, the state’s chief financial officer.

Authorities noted that Quiles later admitted to her insurer, Assurance America, that the accident was staged.

“What the Division of Insurance Fraud typically sees in PIP fraud cases is participants getting together and discussing where and how they will stage the accident,” said Alexis Lambert, a spokeswoman for the Atwater.

Lambert also stated that, in Quiles’ case, she and Cabrales devised the accident scheme after “someone she knew told her she could make money by staging an accident.”

Due to a new state law that was put in place to combat insurance fraud that took effect on July 1^st, Cabrales and Quiles could face civil penalties plus criminal charges if they are convicted of auto insurance fraud or staging an accident.

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), after it passed Texas last year, Florida became the second in the nation in questionable insurance claims. California comes in first.

Among Florida cities, Tampa ranks No. 1 in the state. The bureau’s latest figures show Tampa reached 1,578 questionable claims by the end of 2010, more than 300 above Miami and almost twice as many as Orlando.

In South Florida, dabbling in insurance fraud gained in popularity because illegal immigrants were told that they could pay off the price of being smuggled into the country by faking their injuries in staged accidents.

One of the biggest issues with this type of fraud is that criminals take advantage of the state’s no-fault or personal injury protection (PIP) auto accident coverage. Under that coverage, up to $10,000 per person becomes available once people seek compensation after going to a clinic for some type of treatment.

The NICB is a nonprofit organization that is supported by about 1,000 property/casualty insurance companies and partners with insurers and law enforcement to identify and stop insurance fraud. Frank G. Scafidi, who is a spokesman for the NICB stated that his organization is working to make recommendations for changes in Florida law that will counter criminal manipulation of the no-fault or PIP auto accident coverage.

“It is a great system,” Scafidi said. “It essentially was created for all the right reasons, but unfortunately it’s been abused over the years.”

Scafidi also noted that Florida isn’t alone in its problems with no-fault insurance, “it’s New York. It’s Michigan. … It is the no-fault environment.”