A Michigan City man is expected to admit he helped lead a car insurance fraud ring that took at least $120,000.
According to a plea agreement filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, Robert Lemon, 48, will plead guilty to one count of mail fraud, which comes with a maximum of five years in prison.
A change of plea hearing is set for May 7.
http://liarcatchers.com/insurance_fraud.html
Lemon was charged in December, along with eight other defendants, of staging fake car crashes to collect insurance money. Lemon was accused along with Dwayne Ashford, 52, of Michigan City, of using their shop at 1026 Michigan Boulevard, Michigan City, to buy cars used in the scheme and as the owner’s address on insurance policies and other documents related to the vehicle.
Ashford has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Lemon now says in the agreement that the scheme ran from December 2005 until July 2009 and involved him and others reporting alleged vehicle crashes to various police departments in Indiana and Illinois. They would then submit the crashes to insurance companies for money. None of the crashes actually happened, however.
