Tuesday, October 08, 2002

In the continuing effort to attack insurance fraud, the Division of Criminal Justice – Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor has developed a new training tool designed to assist local law enforcement officers in detecting fraudulent auto theft claims, Attorney General David Samson announced.

According to Peter C. Harvey, first assistant Attorney General and director of the Division of Criminal Justice, the enhanced training package includes an updated training video and accompanying informational materials. The training kit is being distributed to police departments, county prosecutors’ offices and other law enforcement agencies throughout the state.

“Cooperation and joint law enforcement initiatives which maximize resources is our watchword,” said Harvey. “We recognize that by working together, federal, state, county and local law enforcement agencies are better positioned to identify, investigate and prosecute insurance fraud. The more assistance the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor provides to law enforcement agencies in this effort, the more effective we will be in reducing instances of fraudulent auto theft and insurance fraud.”

According to State Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown, the purpose of this initiative is to highlight the “red flag” indicators of potential fraud that law enforcement officers encounter and must consider when investigating the details of reported auto thefts.

“It is estimated that as much as ten percent of all reported auto thefts are false. Fraudulent claims are designed to cheat insurance companies,” said Brown. “Thorough and informed investigations by local police officers investigating auto thefts can often mean the difference between the success and failure of a would be insurance cheat.”

One key indicator of potential insurance fraud targets vehicles reported stolen near the end of a lease, when the person leasing the vehicle has exceeded the allowed mileage and is facing a significant payment to the leasing company upon the return of the leased vehicle.

During the first eight months of 2002, the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor launched more than 400 investigations of individuals suspected of filing fraudulent auto theft claims with their insurance companies.

“Our office continues to identify people who commit theft from automobile insurance companies by ‘giving up’ their cars and trying to deceive the insurance company into paying for those cars,” Brown said. “With the assistance of local law enforcement, we will increase our vigilance and step-up investigations and prosecutions of individuals who attempt to rip off automobile insurance companies by lying to the police and insurance companies about having cars stolen.”

The training video depicts a typical scenario in which the subject disposes of a leased vehicle before making a fraudulent theft claim to the insurance company. The roll call training video is the third in a series produced by the Division of Criminal Justice – Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor. The video is provided to all local New Jersey law enforcement agencies. The Division of Criminal Justice Media Center produced the video.

New Jersey residents can anonymously report insurance fraud to the Division of Criminal Justice – Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor by calling (877) 553-7283 or visiting www.Njinsurancefraud.org.

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