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Special state police unit works to crack down on insurance fraud

Date published: 12/29/2005

By ROBIN KNEPPER

Oh, what people will do to get something for nothing.

A guy in Spotsylvania County with no insurance has an accident that damages his car. He goes home, calls an insurance company and buys a collision policy. The next day he calls the insurance company and files a claim for the accident he says just happened.

"That sort of thing is the majority of my work," says Special Agent Dennis Dodson of the Insurance Fraud Unit of the Virginia State Police. "I've known of people who have an accident, call and get insurance and call back within an hour to make a claim."

The man in Spotsylvania was convicted of obtaining money under false pretenses. The misdemeanor charge got him probation.

More elaborate, and rare, was a plan earlier this year by two Quantico-based Marines to collect money for a 1986 Corvette stolen in Stafford County. The car was taken to Spotsylvania and torched. It had been purchased for $5,000 but was insured for $28,000 only 10 days before the reported theft and arson.

Thanks to the Spotsylvania fire marshal's office, the insurance company and the state police's Insurance Fraud Unit, the pair didn't collect. In October they were convicted of attempted grand larceny, conspiracy and attempting to defraud and were sentenced to 61/2 years in prison, with all but six months suspended.

"In Orange, a man got paid twice for one accident," Dodson recalled. "He was rear-ended in a parking lot, and after his claim was paid by his insurance company, he didn't get the car fixed.

"A few weeks later he was hit again, this time by a woman. He told the woman that his car had an old injury, so no accident report was filed. He then filed a claim with the car owner's insurance company for the same damage. Because no accident report had been filed, the insurance company knew something was wrong and investigated," Dodson said.

According to Orange Commonwealth's Attorney Diana Wheeler, the man was convicted of obtaining money under false pretenses and got probation.

Date published: 12/29/2005