LAWRENCE — Investigators with the city's auto insurance fraud task force consider their latest probe a classic "frequent flier" case.
"Frequent flier" is the nickname the auto insurance industry labels those with five or more claims in 10 years. Such high claim totals generally raise red flags about the credibility of claimants and suspicions about possible fraud.
Four of nine people charged with auto insurance fraud last week in connection with a two-car crash in January 2003 filed seven or more claims.
One driver — Jose Cruz, 58, of 37 Kendall St., Lawrence — filed 26 auto insurance claims over a 51âÑ2-year period ending in early 2003, including eight for accidents involving injury.
The owner and passenger in the other car — Rita Lopez, 52, of 588 Haverhill St., Lawrence — had 22 auto insurance claims over a 12-year period dating back to 1996. Nine of the claims involved car accidents with reported injuries. Lopez claimed to have been hurt in six of those cases.
"In the five years I've been investigating these cases, I think 18 is the most auto insurance claims of anyone we've charged," said Lawrence Detective Sgt. Michael Simard, the department's lead investigator on the task force, which also includes investigators from the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts.
"And here we have two people with 48 claims between them involved in this one accident. This certainly was a red flag that alerted investigators," Simard said.
"There are many red flags that tip us off to fraud: claims history, location of accident, chiropractic clinic and attorney. But this one hit them all," he said.
Cruz said he was driving his son-in-law's 1996 Honda Accord on Bailey Street when the car slid in the snow and through a stop sign at the intersection with Phillips Street, hitting the 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII owned by Lopez.
But two passengers in the Honda told police the crash was a fraud.
OneBeacon Insurance, which insured both cars, referred the case to the fraud bureau after an accident reconstruction specialist concluded the Lincoln was stationary when it was struck and that it could not have caused the damage done to the Honda.
Fraud bureau investigator Debbie Ushkevich was the one who referred the case after investigating it for OneBeacon. She collaborated with Lawrence detectives Simard and Ryan Guthrie in the recent task force probe.
The latest case brings to 333 the number of people charged with auto insurance fraud in the city's five-year crackdown. The task force consists of a handful of police detectives working with investigators from the Insurance Fraud Bureau, District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett's office, the state attorney general's office and fraud investigators from several insurance companies that operate in Lawrence.
Lawrence police Chief John Romero assembled the special unit after a 65-year-old great-grandmother died in a staged car crash in September 2003 that police said she helped plan to scam insurance companies.
Also charged with auto insurance fraud in the latest case were:
Joel Vega, 30, formerly of Lawrence. He is accused of setting up the crash and many others for local law offices and chiropractic or physical therapy clinics. He is being held by federal authorities on immigration-related charges and faces deportation.
Ana Jaquez, 25, of 65 Coolidge St., Lawrence. She was one of two passengers in the 1996 Honda driven by Cruz. Jaquez told investigators the accident was staged and that she was recruited to participate in the fraud.
ÔÇ° Lissette Amor, 33, of 37 Knox St., Lawrence. She was a passenger in Cruz's car who said the crash was set up by Vega as an insurance scam and claimed she was never in the car. Amor has filed nine insurance claims over a 10-year period ending in October 2007.
Pedro Antonio Santos, 33, of Fort Dix, N.J. Investigators identified him as the driver of the 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII owned by Lopez. He is being held in a federal correctional facility on unrelated charges.
Amparo Lopez, 76, of 8 Chester St., Lawrence. Lopez was a passenger in the Lincoln who was arrested last week after denying the crash was staged.
Maria Lopez, 47, of 94 Emerson St., Haverhill. She was a passenger in the Lincoln and is still being sought through an arrest warrant.
Melissa Nunez, 26, of 61 Stevens Ave., Lawrence. Nunez was a passenger in the Lincoln and is still being sought on an arrest warrant. She has filed seven auto insurance claims over a seven-year period ending in June 2003.
