GREED LEADS TO CONVICTION FOR INSURANCE FRAUD

Well I thought I had heard everything. Then I read about Mehran Baranriz who, with his wife, owned an automobile repair shop in Redwood City, California. He was convicted of insurance fraud. He placed dead rat in customers’ cars. Then he told the customers that the rats had done damage to the vehicle and repairs were necessary. He would bill the insurance company for work that was not needed. If he couldn’t find a dead rat he’d use mice and paint them black so that they would look like rats. Over all according to San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office Baranriz billed 25 insurance companies for 236 false claims.

Over the past seven years Baranriz and his wife billed 1.2 million dollars for work that was never done.

Baranriz’s fraud was discovered by a State Farm Insurance audit. The audit found that while the average cost in California for vehicular rodent damage was $1900, Baranriz ‘s average claim was more than $10,000.

Baranriz will spend the next four years in prison where he may see some live rats or some informants who are also known at rats.