Chiropractors Sean Nisivoccia, Charles Nisivoccia and their associate Craig Klein surely knew it was illegal to pay people to stage automobile accidents that would provide them with patients with bogus injuries to treat.
They surely knew that filing false insurance claims to pay for that treatment was illegal and if insurers discovered those fraudulent claims, they would face the full weight of the law for their crimes.
Yet still, they came from New Jersey to Lawrence, once the auto insurance fraud capital of the nation, to make some easy, if illegal, money. They set up shop as Health Group of New England in a second-floor clinic on Essex Street. They billed insurance companies $400,000 during 2003, their first year in business.
The law caught up with Klein and the Nisivoccias. They were indicted in September 2004 by a grand jury investigating auto insurance fraud. Last week, they each pleaded guilty to two counts of filing false motor vehicle insurance claims and two counts of conspiracy.
Then they found out what the "full weight of the law" means — 90 days in jail and 500 hours of community service.
That's it.
We're left to ponder this: If the Nisivoccia brothers and Klein knew this was what they risked five years ago when they came to Lawrence to make a bundle in the auto fraud racket, would they still have done it?
Who wouldn't? We have to believe most people would guess that the penalty for ripping off insurance companies, risking people's lives in staged accidents and raising insurance rates through the roof for everyone would have to be more than 90 days in jail. Wouldn't reasonable people think they were facing at least a few years in prison if they got caught?
Guess not. Chiropractor Alan Cohen, whose Lawrence Back & Neck once billed insurers $3 million in a year, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud charges in an earlier case. He got the same 90 days. But Cohen did get twice the community service time — 1,000 hours.
So if the actual penalty for committing insurance fraud is 90 days in jail plus some community service and that is far less than what common sense might indicate, how is that in any way a deterrent to crime? It's more like an incentive. Come to Lawrence and commit insurance fraud. You could make millions. At worst, you'll get 90 days.
Lawrence police and Essex County prosecutors have done great work in combatting insurance fraud. Their effort has lowered insurance premiums for everyone and made our streets safer.
But if courts keep handing out toothless sentences for those who profit most from these crimes, it won't be long before Lawrence is again the insurance fraud capital of the country. Courts are making insurance fraud a crime where the rewards far outweigh the risks.
