Targeting Lane Changes in 29 Crash Scenarios... Even Mother and Girlfriend Mobilized

[Anchor]

A man in his 40s has been arrested and sent to prosecutors on charges of intentionally causing traffic accidents to collect insurance payouts 29 times. He even had his mother and girlfriend ride in the passenger seat to extort larger insurance amounts.

Reporter Lee Se-hyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

As a taxi makes a left turn along the lane guidance lines, a vehicle in the adjacent lane suddenly collides with it the moment it attempts to change lanes.

[Dashcam footage from victim taxi : Oh, what!]

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

During a left turn, the vehicle collides directly with a car changing lanes.

This was the modus operandi of a gang that intentionally targeted cars changing lanes to cause accidents across Seoul, Guri in Gyeonggi Province, and Namyangju over a period of two years and five months starting in March 2023.

[Park Hye-ran / Victim : Something gave a sharp hit from behind. I thought, 'What is this?' and looked, and a young woman came out holding her neck. It was such an absurd thing to fall victim to.]

The crimes they committed totaled 29 instances, with the illicitly acquired insurance payouts amounting to 240 million won.

After causing the accidents, if settlement money did not meet their expectations, they used tactics such as hospitalizing themselves for extended periods even when they were not seriously injured.

Investigations revealed that they stayed hospitalized for up to five days even for accidents where only the side mirrors grazed each other, and placed his girlfriend or mother in the passenger seat to double their insurance payouts.

They alternated using two second-hand cars purchased under the girlfriend's name to cause accidents, and even continued their crimes using rental cars provided by insurance companies following the accidents.

[Lee Byung-hoon / Head of Traffic Crime Investigation Team, Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency : In 2024, he had a record of receiving a 1 million won fine for the same type of insurance fraud. Considering that he committed these crimes habitually, (we applied aggravated punishment) allowing for an increase of up to half the penalty for insurance fraud.]

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 also forwarded Ahn's mother and girlfriend, who participated in the crimes, to the prosecution.

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