THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
April 19, 2023 at 16:06 JST
The headquarters of Fukuoka prefectural police in Fukuoka (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
FUKUOKA--Prefectural police have arrested a group of people over some 15 million yen ($111,700) in fraudulent insurance claims made after a series of staged car accidents.
Fukuoka prefectural police on April 18 said 13 people have been arrested or sent to prosecutors on fraud and attempted fraud charges.
They include Tomonari Tahira, 42, a construction worker who lives in Kita-Kyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture, and Shuichi Nagaoka, 52, a former insurance agency employee who lives in Yukuhashi in the prefecture.
According to police, Tahira and others enticed their acquaintances to help stage car accidents in Kita-Kyushu five times from July 2018 to November 2021.
They then fraudulently collected insurance under the pretense of medical expenses for treatment and other expenditures, according to the allegations.
This scheme was carried out more than 100 times and they racked up a total of 15.2 million yen, the sources said.
Tahira introduced Nagaoka to these acquaintances and had them take out automobile insurance policies.
After the staged accidents, Nagaoka would negotiate insurance payouts for these acquaintances.
A 36-year-old woman who was one of the accomplices drove her three sons, including an elementary school student and a preschooler, in a car that was purportedly rear-ended twice.
The accidents had been staged in such a way to increase the insurance that could be collected, sources said. The woman claimed that her sons were injured in these accidents and collected insurance payments each time.
While the circumstances behind these arrests are exceptional, it turns out this is a fairly common crime, according to police statistics.
According to the National Police Agency, over the past decade until 2022, police busted 1,414 cases of insurance fraud involving staged car accidents and arrested 2,438 people.
Fukuoka prefectural police arrested 278 of them--the most in Japan.
(This article was written by Yuka Suzuki and Hideoki Kozuki.)
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