Virginia Insurance Fraud Arrests Increase

The Virginia State Police (VSP) insurance fraud program just released their 2011 Annual Report, which shows the number of arrests for insurance fraud and other related crimes, such as arson and forgery increased eight percent over 2010.

Since 1999, more than 4,000 fraud investigations have been undertaken and special agents have made a total of 2,185 arrests.

In 2011, the department made 231 arrests with 91 cases presented to the commonwealth’s attorneys and 143 cases adjudicated in 2011 – an increase for the third year in a row.

As required by Virginia law, the VSP investigates suspected fraud in property and casualty lines of insurance, as well as suspected workers’ compensation fraud. The 2011 statistics show 1,259 property fraud-related notifications were received. Of the 627 notifications received involving injury and casualty fraud, 146 were for fraudulent workers’ compensation claims.

In 2011, the courts ordered restitution of more than $148,000. Court-ordered restitution since 1999 has surpassed $14 million, and suspected false insurance claims reported, both attempted and collected, have topped $139 million.

Source: Virginia State Police Insurance Fraud Program