At least a dozen people in New Rochelle and the Bronx were indicted Wednesday in a cunning car fraud scheme to collect insurance by strategically smashing vehicles and submitting big-buck bills while scrimping on the actual repairs, prosecutors said.
The two-year investigation dubbed “Operation Sledgehammer” led to charges against nine individuals and five body shop businesses in Westchester County and the north Bronx, prosecutors said.
The defendants were part of a fraud ring named Jawahir Enterprise, authorities said.
According to prosecutors, ring members between May 2019 and March intentionally made damaged cars even worse when they were brought into body shops — sometimes with the owner’s knowledge, sometimes without, said prosecutors.
Shocking video released by the Westchester County district attorney’s office shows several people smashing the side of one vehicle inside a fenced-off parking area.
Shocking video released by the Westchester County district attorney’s office shows several people smashing the side of one vehicle inside a fenced-off parking area.
In several incidents, the group staged car accidents involving two or more vehicles as long as one of the car owners had insurance, authorities said.
And on more than one occasion, the conspirators smashed up cars with sledgehammers to make it look like damage inflicted by another vehicle, according to court papers. Sometimes the group did nothing to the vehicle but filed an insurance claim anyway, prosecutors said.
Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino said the defendants had “the assistance of many agencies and partners.”
Those in on the scheme included body shop owners and their employees, nonoperational body shop owners, car owners who got a portion of the insurance payout, and people who called insurance companies and pretended to be vehicle owners filing a claim, authorities said.
“When false claims are made and money is stolen from insurance companies, it forces all of our insurance rates to increase and costs each of us hard-earned money,” Scarpino said in a statement.
The fraud ring also included people who laundered the criminal proceeds and people who located new people to bring into the scheme.
Defendants Rangee Jawahir, Georgette Sloley, Joseph Cermele and Wayne Scott were arraigned on grand larceny, insurance fraud and a host of other charges in New Rochelle City Court on Wednesday.
Ronnie Lee-Andros Jawahir, Ronald Jawahir, Danesh Singh, Andrew Arjune and Allan Ramdeo Ramiah were arraigned on the same charges.
Three more people — Latoya Shonta Turner, Reiluis Medina and Andrea Thompson — were arrested and charged separately in connection to the scheme, authorities said.
All of the defendants were released without bail and are due back in court next month.
