A Suffolk County judge has ruled that Integon National Insurance is not liable for claims from eight 2023 crashes, which were found to be deliberately staged as part of organised fraud, highlighting the ongoing battle against staged accidents affecting policyholders nationwide.
A Suffolk County judge has ruled that Integon National Insurance does not have to pay claims arising from eight 2023 crashes after finding they were deliberately staged as part of an organised fraud scheme. In a summary judgment, New York Supreme Court Judge Maureen T. Liccione concluded that the collisions were not accidental events and therefore fell outside the policies’ coverage.
According to court records described by the National Insurance Crime Bureau and other reporting, the crashes followed a remarkably similar pattern: each involved three occupants, most took place in the same area, and many featured a passenger car striking the rear of a commercial vehicle. The judge also said the insurer had shown the claims were tied together through shared brokers, medical providers and legal representation, while investigators identified inconsistencies in the stories told by vehicle occupants.
The ruling said Integon owed no reimbursements or other payments to the defendants connected with the incidents, which occurred between March and July 2023. Court filings showed that the alleged scheme extended beyond the insured drivers to 17 passenger claimants and roughly 140 health care providers, with treatments and billing routed through a small number of offices in Queens. The judge found the arrangement created opportunities for cash kickbacks, exaggerated injury claims or both.
Liccione also stressed the wider cost of such conduct. Citing insurance-fraud estimates from the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, she said the problem is far from victimless because the expense is ultimately spread across policyholders through higher premiums. That conclusion reflects a broader concern in New York, where staged-crash cases have increasingly drawn scrutiny from investigators, insurers and advocates pushing for tighter fraud controls.
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Source: Noah Wire Services
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