"Perpetrators and Victims All in Cahoots"… Gang Staged Traffic Accidents to Fraudulently Claim Billion-Won Insurance Payouts

Cheongju District Court Sentences Ringleader to 2 Years and 6 Months in Prison
About 30 Deliberate Traffic Accidents in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province

A group that deliberately caused dozens of traffic accidents over several years to collect large insurance payouts, with both the perpetrator and victim vehicles being from the same neighborhood senior-junior circle, was sentenced to prison.

The Cheongju District Court Criminal Division 4 (Judge Kang Hyun-ho) sentenced A (31), who was tried for violating the Special Act on the Prevention of Insurance Fraud, to 2 years and 6 months in prison, according to Yonhap News on the 2nd. The court also sentenced two accomplices charged with the same offense to prison terms ranging from 1 year to 1 year and 6 months, and handed fines of 3 million won to 1 year prison with 2 years probation to 10 other accomplices who assisted in the crimes.

Insurance Fraud

These individuals, who were in a senior-junior relationship in the neighborhood, conspired to cause traffic accidents by dividing roles as perpetrators and victims, and deliberately caused about 30 traffic accidents in Cheongju from September 2020 to April 2023. They were indicted on charges of obtaining insurance payouts worth approximately 190 million won through these crimes.

A and others stole the personal information of accomplices who were not present at the accident scenes and falsely reported to insurance companies that these accomplices were passengers in the vehicles to claim higher insurance payouts. They even deceived insurance companies by claiming accidents occurred when none actually happened to receive insurance money.

The court stated, "Insurance fraud crimes not only threaten the insurance system, which is based on the good faith of policyholders, but also increase insurance expenses for the community, causing significant harm to society as a whole." It pointed out, "Considering that multiple defendants systematically caused intentional accidents, the nature of the crime is serious." Regarding sentencing, the court explained, "The sentences were determined by comprehensively considering each defendant’s prior criminal record, degree of involvement, and number of offenses."

Meanwhile, according to statistics from the Financial Supervisory Service, the amount of detected insurance fraud increased by about 27%, from 880.9 billion won in 2019 to 1.1164 trillion won in 2023. Nearly half of this involves automobile insurance fraud (547.6 billion won involving 65,000 people). In response, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Financial Services Commission, and the Financial Supervisory Service announced on the 26th of last month a 'Measures to Improve Automobile Insurance Fraud Prevention.' The government plans to establish clear standards so that future treatment costs, which have been paid as a matter of practice, will only be paid to seriously injured patients. Additionally, if minor injury patients wish to receive long-term treatment exceeding the usual 8-week treatment period, they will be required to submit additional documents (such as medical records) to insurance companies. Along with this, penalties will be strengthened to prevent insurance fraud and to operate the automobile insurance system more transparently.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.