WASHINGTON, D.C., July 26 – State lawmakers have adopted a model law making it a crime to stage car crashes and recruit for the rings, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud announced.

The National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) has unanimously passed a model bill at its summer meeting in Boston. The measure, which the coalition said is based on its model, and on fraud laws in Florida and bills in New York, would:

Make it a crime to stage accidents using vehicles or on paper;

Make it a crime to recruit members of accident rings, or hire recruiters;

Limit outsider access to police accident reports, which accident gangs often use to target real accident victims for fake or inflated medical treatment;

Suspend the drivers licenses of anyone using their license to stage a car crash.

State lawmakers are signaling they realize prosecutors can dismantle accident rings far more effectively with a targeted fraud law that helps them apply constant pressure against gang members in court, said Howard Goldblatt, the coalitions director of government affairs.

The NCOIL model attacks accident rings at several vulnerable points, Goldblatt explained. Making it a crime to stage so-called paper crashes, for example, addresses a newer trend, he said. Increasingly, Goldblatt continued, accident rings dont even use cars, but rather simplify their scams by inventing crashes using stolen or fake police reports.

Going after recruiters also targets a potential soft spot, according to Goldblatt. Faced with serious jail time, many mid-level recruiters will turn in a rings kingpins in exchange for lenience, he said.

Limiting outsider access to police reports addresses another trend, Goldblatt asserted. Fraud rings, he explained, often use police reports to recruit unknowing victims of real crashes, or to support phantom crashes that exist only on paper.

Relentless focus and pressure are the best strategies for breaking down highly insular accident rings. Theres no substitute for the constant, almost daily, pursuit by prosecutors armed with effective fraud laws, Goldblatt said. We commend NCOIL for taking this important step.

Goldblatt added that the NCOIL bill now is a resource that lawmakers and fraud fighters can use when proposing legislation to deal with the rings in their home states.

Noting that many accident rings have 100 or more members, and are skilled at mass-producing fake injury claims worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Goldblatt said, Phony injury claims can be highly profitable. This makes the rings persistent, well-protected, and hard to penetrate and bust. They can be equally hard to prosecute in court, but targeted fraud laws give prosecutors leverage that can increase convictions.