WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) -- Sixteen people have been convicted and 20 cases are pending in a Colleton County insurance scam that authorities say may be the biggest staged accident scheme in South Carolina history.
The Charleston Post and Courier reported Friday the same people reported injuries for wrecks on the same roads.
Officials say people would run an older car into a tree, claiming it was a traffic accident. Then they would file injury claims for others they said were hurt in the crash.
Allison Dean Love of the South Carolina Insurance News Service says the scam is bigger than one in the Pee Dee a decade ago where insurance companies were defrauded of $320,000.
In that scheme, people hit each other with 2-by-4s to make it look as though they had been injured in traffic accidents.
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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.charleston.net
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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