Ga. Vehicle Fraud Ring Busted

Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine announced that arrests were made recently in Murray County as part of his investigation into an insurance fraud ring that has allegedly been operating in North Georgia for the past five years.

Arrested were: Melissa Haley, 23, of Crandall, Ga.; Mary Helen Ross, 50, and Jennifer Shelton, 30, both of Chatsworth.

“We believe these suspects may have accomplices,” Oxendine said, “so more arrests are possible.”

Oxendine said the suspects would apparently take out numerous insurance policies on a particular vehicle, then file claims for accident damage as well as injuries to passengers. Insurers became suspicious when they noticed that in some cases the policies had been sold to the suspects the same day the alleged accident took place.

Investigators from Oxendine’s office discovered that a vehicle registered to a suspect had been involved in numerous accident claims with more than one insurance company.