Jan.. 17, 2019—According to a report by TV station WGXA, a Decatur, Ga., body shop owner recently pleaded guilty to staging car crashes and inflicting intentional damage on customers’ vehicles to pocket larger insurance payouts. As a result, he will spend two years in prison.
Alfonzo McKeever, 55, pleaded guilty to racketeering just prior to when his trial was set to start in Bibb County Superior Court on Monday. A judge sentenced him to serve 15 years; McKeever must serve the first two years in prison and may serve the remainder of the time on probation.
The shop owner must also join his co-defendents in paying more than $19,000 in restitution to Geico Insurance Company and more than $15,000 to Progressive Insurance.
Of the case, Macon attorney David Cooke said: “Insurance companies shouldn’t have to look at their customers with an increasingly skeptical eye, but fraud like this makes that a reality. … Anyone who considers a scheme like this one should expect to face serious consequences when they’re caught and their portion of the bill comes due.”
