Stuntmen, fake injuries, multiple crash vehicles: The SPVM is investigating a suspicious series of road accidents and suspects they were staged to commit fraud.
Posted at 5:00 am
June 22, 2021, 9:37 p.m.: A violent collision of four vehicles, two moving and two parked, occurs at the corner of Boulevard Léger and Rue Lanthier in Montreal North.
Firefighters and police officers dispatched to the scene of the crime help the inmates and collect their statements, which everyone agrees with.
But the animation that reigns in the street attracts a spectator resident in the sector. “Come to my house,” he told police, “I have a security camera that caught the scene. »
The patrols look at the pictures. These tell a completely different story than the drivers and occupants of the vehicles involved.
Before the impact, the camera captured comings and goings between people on foot or in cars talking and the vehicles, which stop and appear to be waiting for a signal.
Then there is a collision, presumably on purpose.
The driver of an involved Mazda gets out through a window, moves with a hunched back, straightens up further, and then drives away.
At the same time, another vehicle arrives at the scene, a woman gets out and sits in the Mazda, leading police to believe she was driving.
Stuntmen behind the wheel
This “coordinated collision” and at least six others that occurred in the Rivière-des-Prairies and Montreal-North sectors between May 2021 and April 2022 are the focus of an investigation launched by the SPVM’s Economic Crimes Unit into a network of scammers. who had defrauded or attempted to defraud the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) and insurance companies, La Presse learned.
The total amount of the scam would amount to tens of thousands of dollars.
According to a court document seen by La Presse, at least twenty people, including extras and nominees, have supported the activities of this network, which is run by two people with ties to vehicle brokers.
In some of these fake collisions, stuntmen would get behind the wheel of the vehicle prior to impact and immediately flee the scene, replaced by people, male or female, posing as the driver and telling lies to police.
In several cases, three or more vehicles were involved in the collisions. Most of the time, these vehicles were bought from a dealer or paid for in cash from a private individual and insured a few weeks or days before the accident, in one case even the day before.
The odometers of some vehicles have been reset, including one by more than 130,000 kilometers, to increase the value of the claims.
In other cases, vehicles were involved in an accident before the collision, which the suspects did not disclose after the impact.
For just one of those orchestrated collisions, which occurred on May 22, 2021 at the corner of Henri-Bourassa Boulevard and Arthur-Nantel Street, two different insurance companies paid two of the suspects a total of $38,000 in damages.
Another time, an insurance company paid $20,000 in damages to one of the suspects, and two other times $17,000.
The network’s alleged leader is receiving compensation from SAAQ, but the application was denied for three other suspects, who could have received up to $1,215 every two weeks.
Filmed in flagrante
On April 13, 2022, during a collision of five vehicles at the corner of Chaminade and de Louvois streets, a surveillance camera in the area allowed the police to see that the scene was different.
One of the vehicles involved was pushed by three suspects who dragged it into the intersection.
After the collision, the driver of one of the vehicles, a Volkswagen Tiguan, got out of the driver’s seat of the SUV and another took his place. He called 911 twice and asked for a police presence.
His insurance company paid him $5,000 to have his vehicle repaired. But two and a half months later, after being sold, the same SUV was involved in a questionable collision, for which the new owner received $13,000 in compensation. However, authorities then discovered that the initial repair had never been made.
compromising communication
It was the testimony of the first bystander, the fact that another orchestrated collision was being planned and carried out under the eyes of a plainclothes police officer, and the images from surveillance cameras that enabled investigators from the SPVM’s Economic Crimes Unit to launch these investigations.
Investigators from SAAQ and the fraudulent insurance companies have recognized that they have been victims of fraud and, in some cases, have been able to prevent it. They also provided important information to the police.
Specifically, they analyzed the prime suspects’ phone records during the spring and summer of 2021 and found that one of them communicated hundreds of times with people allegedly involved in the scams, and that several of the people involved in collisions communicated with each other before and after the Impact.
The investigation is ongoing and the suspects could potentially face fraud and conspiracy charges.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514.285-7000, extension 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the La Presse mailing address.