The owner of a Chalfont, Pennsylvania auto body repair shop submitted 289 false insurance claims over several years to four insurance companies, pocketing more than $426,000 in payouts, according to the Bucks County district attorney.
District Attorney Matt Weintraub said that the owner of the repair shop, John Paul Reis, turned himself in on Aug. 25, 2022 on charges of insurance fraud, deceptive business practices, forgery and theft by deception, all third-degree felonies.
Weintraub said the charges filed against Reis are the result of a four-year investigation that began after a referral from Erie Insurance’s special investigations unit that alleged the Chalfont Collision Center was enhancing and or creating damage to customers’ vehicles to inflate insurance estimates. Investigators allege that Reis would wipe a compound mixture onto the body of several vehicles and sometimes strike them with a hammer, making it appear as if the vehicles were involved in an accident, so that he could bill insurance companies for more money.
Officials said Chalfont Collision Center was a direct repair center for Erie Insurance and other insurance companies, meaning it was authorized to write estimates, complete the repairs, and submit the estimate/billing documents for payment, speeding up repair time for customers.
Bucks County detectives told the court they contacted investigative units of other insurance companies and found that Erie Insurance, Nationwide Insurance, CSAA Insurance Group and Liberty Mutual Insurance collectively identified 289 estimates that they said contained “artificial or inflated damages” in the estimates submitted by Chalfont Collision between 2014 and 2022.
The insurance companies identified $426,233.64 in fraudulent claims, including 185 by Liberty Mutual Insurance for $312,265.83.
Charges are only allegations, and each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
“There is a tendency for some people to think of insurance fraud as a victimless crime,” DA Weintraub said. “That is, until the financial losses from those fraudulent claims are passed onto us in the form of higher insurance rates.
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