The owner of a collision repair shop in Chalfont, Pennsylvania was found guilty of committing auto insurance fraud, reports local news source Patch.
John Paul Reis is the owner of Chalfont Collision Center and had pleaded guilty to charges of insurance fraud, deceptive business practices, forgery, and theft by deception, which were made against him following a four-year investigation by the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Insurance Fraud Unit.
The shop had been a direct repair center for several insurance companies, including Erie Insurance, which sparked the investigation. In September of 2018, Erie Insurance submitted a referral to detectives accusing Chalfont Collision Center of deliberately inflicting damage onto vehicles to raise insurance estimates.
The investigation discovered that Reis had been doing just that, by using a compound mixture on the body of several vehicles and sometimes even beating them with a hammer. He would tell insurance companies the vehicle was brought in that state and bill them for the additional damages.
Reis was sentenced this past Monday to 84 years of restrictive probation and four months of house arrest. He will owe $435,246.69 to Erie Insurance, Nationwide Insurance, CSAA Insurance Group, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and NJM Insurance.
