NORTHAMPTON — The Northwestern district attorney’s office has received a $25,000 grant to continue its efforts to prosecute insurance fraud.
The grant comes from the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts, with which the district attorney’s office has collaborated since 2011. The bureau investigates suspected cases of criminal insurance fraud, and when it puts together a case that justifies prosecution, it approaches the district attorney’s office, First Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Steven Gagne explained.
Since the collaboration began, the district attorney’s office has prosecuted approximately 60 insurance fraud cases.
“We have yet to have any of their cases go to trial,” Gagne said. “They have uniformly been resolved through some type of plea or admission to sufficient facts.
“Oftentimes, we are dealing with folks who have limited or no criminal records who probably don’t realize when they are lying to the insurance company about their car being struck overnight by some mystery vehicle or lying about where they keep their vehicle overnight. They probably don’t realize they are committing felonies.”
Gagne said that, often, cases are resolved with orders to repay money collected as part of the insurance claim, as well as fees or restitution.
The grant money is used to help in the prosecution of the cases and can help pay for forensic accountants, travel or surveillance, for example.
Authorized by the Legislature, the Insurance Fraud Bureau is a public-private agency funded by automobile and workers compensation insurers in Massachusetts. Through the bureau’s Community Insurance Fraud Initiative, the bureau has helped reduce by $1.1 billion the amount of fraudulent claims paid statewide since 2003, which in turn has helped to reduce insurance premiums for consumers by an estimated $162 per car, according to the district attorney’s office.
“We are honored to continue our partnership with the Insurance Fraud Bureau, and assist them in their efforts to combat all types of insurance fraud,” Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan said in a statement.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.