Targeting Lane Changes: Group Nabs Wrecked 240 Million Won with Moms and Girlfriends Aboard

[Anchor]

A group of individuals has been arrested by the police for intentionally causing traffic accidents and pocketing 240 million won in insurance payouts. To extract larger settlements, they even placed their girlfriends and mothers in the passenger seats.

Reporter Lee Se-hyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

A taxi making a left turn along the guidance lines collides with a vehicle in the adjacent lane the moment it attempts to cross the lane boundary.

[What is that!]

This is the intersection in front of the Lotte World Tower in Jamsil.

While making a left turn, the vehicle crashes straight into another car changing lanes.

This footage captures the acts of a group that intentionally caused accidents by targeting cars changing lanes in areas including Seoul, Guri, and Namyangju over a period of two years and five months starting in March 2023.

[Park Hye-ran / Victim: Something struck the back with a thump. As I wondered what it was and looked, a young woman got out holding her neck. I was caught completely off guard.]

Their crimes totaled 29 instances, with the illicitly acquired insurance payouts alone reaching 240 million won.

When settlements did not match their demands after causing accidents, they resorted to long-term hospitalization even when injuries were minor.

Investigations revealed they stayed hospitalized for up to five days even for accidents where only the side mirrors grazed, and seated their girlfriends or mothers in the passenger seat to double their insurance claims.

They alternated accidents using two used cars purchased under the girlfriend's name, and even continued their crimes using rental cars provided by insurance companies following the crashes.

[Lee Byeong-hoon / Head of the Traffic Crime Investigation Team at Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency: He has a prior record of receiving a 1 million won fine for the same type of insurance fraud in 2024. Deeming these habitual crimes, we applied aggravated punishment, under which insurance fraud sentences can be increased by up to 50 percent.]

The police arrested the main suspect, a man in his 40s surnamed Ahn, on charges of violating the Special Act on the Prevention of Insurance Fraud, and referred his mother and girlfriend, who participated in the crimes, to prosecutors.

(Video reporting: Kim Seung-tae, Video editing: Lee Seung-yeol, Footage provided by: Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.