Police discover scam that simulated 12 accidents and destroyed 25 vehicles to receive R$2 million from insurance companies

The Civil Police of the Federal District arrested, this Monday (18), six members of a criminal organization accused of simulating car accidents to receive compensation from insurance companies.

Since 2015, the organization has simulated 12 accidents, destroyed 25 vehicles and received around R$2 million in compensation. According to the police, the fake accidents occurred in the cities of Brazlândia, Taguatinga, Ceilândia, Samambaia, Vicentes Pires and Brasília.

The accidents also involved vehicles from luxury brands such as Porsche, BMW, Audi, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz.

As the police detailed, the organization operated as follows:

• Members purchased used imported vehicles that were difficult to sell, some of which were damaged;
• After being repaired, the vehicles were insured, with an indemnity value corresponding to 100% of the Fipe table, much higher than the purchase and repair value of the cars;
• To circumvent the insurance market and make it difficult to discover criminal links, those investigated took turns acting as owner, insurance provider, driver, third party involved in the accident and recipient of compensation, sometimes via power of attorney;
• Also to make investigations more difficult, the criminals registered the occurrences of accidents at the Electronic Police Station, avoiding questions from the judicial police about the accident;
• Finally, the insurance compensation was received, based on the Fipe table.

Among the targets of the operation is a former military police officer from the DF PM, who is on leave from the corporation for issuing 150 bad checks.

Those investigated, whose names were not disclosed, could receive sentences of between three and eight years in prison.