Extensive Auto Insurance Fraud Ring Broken Up

A Philadelphia man who admitted to orchestrating dozens of fake auto accident claims that cost insurance companies nearly $1.3-million in personal injury losses has been sentenced.

KYW's Steve Tawa reports that assistant district attorney Linda Montag says the defendant enlisted the cooperation of friends, relatives, and associates who would claim bodily injury based on accidents that never happened:

"Mr. Wallace Morris was a co-conspirator in a large insurance fraud scheme totalling in 44 car accidents, 115- arrests, over $1-million loss to 17 insurance companies."

So far, more than 90 people have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate. One of them was a former Philadelphia police officer who filed fraudulent accident reports which were necessary to support fraudulent insurance claims.

Judge Rosemarie Defino-Nastasi found it ironic that Morris stated in his pre-sentence report that his transportation company went under because of high insurance costs. Then, she sentenced him to four-to-ten years in prison and ordered him to pay $440,000 in restitution.