Pennsylvania Man Sentenced for Staging Crashes

An Erie, Pa., man has pleaded guilty and been sentenced for heading a fraud ring that staged auto accidents to collect about $37,000 from insurance companies.

The Erie Times-News reports 38-year-old Edgar Rodriguez was sentenced to six to 23 months in jail on Tuesday and immediately paroled because he’s been jailed since his arrest October.

Erie county investigators became suspicious because of how frequently Rodriguez was involved in accidents and how many of them involved similar damage and vehicles, including a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan.

Rodriguez was charged with staging 15 separate accidents from June 2010 until his arrest in October, including three in which he acted alone and 12 others in which co-defendants allegedly helped him.