La. Couple Admits Staging Car Crashes

A New Orleans man and woman have admitted that, from 1997 through 2004, they collected at least $51,000 in insurance on fender-benders they caused on purpose.

Elton Calloway, 36, and Rosalyn Bradley, 28, were ordered to repay the insurance companies and put on probation for five years, according to records from their recent guilty pleas in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.

Each pleaded guilty to multiple counts of insurance fraud and one of conspiracy.

Nine others were charged in the same insurance fraud ring in August 2004. Two of them have pleaded guilty and prosecutors have dropped charges against three. Yolanda Mitchell, 30, Lisa Oatis, 46, and Dannika Vaughn, 30, are scheduled for trial Aug. 28.

Many of the “accidents” happened on private property and were never reported to the police, according to the district attorney’s office.

Participants would cause accidents, then push their victims into drawing fast settlements from their insurance policies, authorities said.

Information from: The Times-Picayune, www.timespicayune.com.