Insurance fraud can be hard to bear

Melvin Durai

Insurance fraud is nothing new: it has existed since the days of the cavemen. That’s when a man named Bongah collected shiny stones from his fellow cavemen, as he convinced each of them to buy wife insurance. If someone steals your wife, he told them, you will either get her back or 50 stones. It wasn’t long before a man named Dongah faked his wife’s disappearance and ended up with both a wife and 50 stones, some of which he threw at an angry Bongah. If you do not believe the story of Dongah and Bongah, you may be equally skeptical about a recent case of insurance fraud in California.

A group of four people collected a total of $141,839 from insurance companies, claiming that a bear, in three separate incidents, had caused extensive damage to their luxury cars. They even submitted video evidence of the bear attacks to the insurance companies. One insurance company became suspicious and sent the video to the California Department of Insurance, where detectives determined that the bear was a human in a costume. But just to be absolutely certain, the department got a second opinion — from a biologist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. This biologist, evidently an expert in identifying real bears, reviewed the footage and concluded that the animal shown was definitely a human in a bear suit.

Detectives got a warrant to search the suspects’ home and found a bear costume, along with meat-shredding kitchen implements, often marketed as “bear claws.” Three of the defendants have pleaded “no contest” to felony insurance fraud and been sentenced to 180 days in jail (to be served through a weekend jail programme) and two years of supervised probation. Two of them will each pay more than $50,000 in restitution, while restitution for the third has not been determined. A court hearing for the fourth defendant will be held in September. You are probably saying to yourself, “Weekend jail programme? If that’s all they got, maybe it’s time for me to consider insurance fraud.

After all, my landlord keeps increasing my rent.” Insurance fraud might be tempting, but it’s a serious crime that hurts us all. It not only results in higher premiums for everyone, it also hurts the reputation of bears. Imagine how we’d feel if a bear wore a human costume and robbed a store, making off with all its honey. Trust me, the bear would face serious consequences. Bear’s lawyer: “Your honour, my client pleads ‘no contest’ and requests the weekend jail programme.” Judge: “Ha ha! The weekend jail programme is only for humans impersonating bears. A bear impersonating a human, according to my guidelines, will be placed in a zoo.” Lawyer: “Oh God, no!” Judge: “Does your client think that’s inhumane?” Lawyer: “No, just unbearable.” Thankfully, bears are rarely used in insurance fraud schemes. More commonly, humans stage accidents and submit fraudulent claims, not just for damage to vehicles and other physical objects but also for bodily injury.

Here’s what could happen: You are driving down the road when the driver in front of you suddenly slams his brakes, causing you to rear-end his car. It appears to be a minor accident, but there are four people inside the other car and all four claim to have “nearly died.” Soon, they have hired a lawyer and are trying to reach a lucrative settlement with your insurance company. A former Metropolitan Police officer in Britain recently admitted his role in a scam to bilk insurance companies.

In one incident, Kuldip Singh, who was a cop at the time, was driving a white Citroën when it was rear-ended by a Tesco delivery van driven by Singh’s accomplice, Raiyaan Anwar. Not surprisingly, Singh was carrying four passengers, resulting in five personal injury compensation claims. Singh has not been sentenced yet, but I hope he isn’t spending just weekends in jail.