Auto Insurance Fraud Convictions

The state of Hawaii is taking auto insurance fraud very seriously. They have formed a task force called the Hawaii Auto Insurance Fraud Investigation Unit of the State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (Fraud Unit). They are dedicated to ensuring that those that attempt to commit auto insurance fraud are discovered and prosecuted for their crimes.

The auto insurance unit says that they have discovered that they have had an increase over the previous year in auto insurance fraud. The unit says that auto insurance fraud has increased 61% over last year, and they are pursuing all leads to discover why. Auto insurance convictions have increased from 18 in 2006 to 34 in 2007 and 55 in 2008. They expect that this year they will have even more auto insurance fraud convictions.

Part of this is that they have an increased staff and are more able to hunt down those that have perpetrated auto insurance fraud. As the years go on, the team also gets more skilled in seeking out those that are possibly attempting to pull a fast one on the auto insurance companies.

One of their biggest clients would be Beverly Medeiros. Medeiros was being investigated for five different cases of auto insurance fraud, and the task force fully investigated her once they realized that all might not be as represented. She claimed that due to an auto accident she was unable to work, and create fictitious employers to create an entire scheme around the inability to work. When all was said and done, she had defrauded three different auto insurance companies and was sentenced to both jail time and repayment of money stolen in addition to court fees.




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