How California Suv Drivers Used Arson To Leave Their Debt In The Ashes

If someone told you that being a criminal would let you pay off your car loan debt in one sweep of a match would you believe them? Or would you shake your head and walk away? For a large number of SUV owners in Southern California the chance to get out from under their upside down auto loan was too much temptation, and they joined hands with a ring of arsonists to commit a blazing auto insurance fraud that left the system reeling.

Arson is nothing new, especially when the economy starts dipping and plunging the way ours has in recent years. What would you do if you'd just bought a $40,000 SUV and found out a year or two later that you were getting laid off? How would you handle making your monthly payments, especially when you found out that your SUV was only worth a fraction of what you paid for it? GAP insurance will make sure you're covered if you're in an accident, but what do you do the rest of the time?

For many SUV drivers the solution was to contact their dealer and see if they could trade their SUV in for a cheaper and more fuel efficient model. Their enterprising dealers had a better idea. What would they say to getting in touch with someone who for a measly $300 could make all their problems disappear in a blaze of glory?

This dealership was committing auto insurance fraud, and they were doing it well. They'd joined forces with a group of arsonists who for $300 would "steal" their clients' SUVs, take them to a remote location and burn them to the ground. The owners could then weep regretfully when the police told them there was absolutely nothing left of their truck before running gleefully to file an auto insurance claim with their insurance provider for the total amount of their car-and if they had GAP insurance they could pay off their car loan and make a fresh start without any type of payment hanging over their head.

Needless to say, the system worked great. The arsonists pocketed $300 for a short stint, the dealership took their cut in referrals and the drivers paid off their loans and walked away happy. What they never tell you when you sign on the dotted line for these things is what's going to happen when local law enforcement figures out you're committing auto insurance fraud-and pig jokes aside, they're going to figure it out sooner or later. Convicted cases can spend up to four years in prison (more in some states), face tens of thousands of dollars in fines and find themselves forced to pay restitution to the auto insurance companies they defrauded.

A sting by Southern California police managed to catch the arsonist in the act, locking him into an SUV he'd been hired to steal and using his testimony to bring down seven other members of the arson ring and bring the system to a screeching halt.

Those dealers are paying more in fines now than they ever made taking their cut off of these arson cases. It just goes to show that true to form, crime really doesn't pay.