Man sentenced to prison in Leiria for defrauding insurance companies with fake accidents in Switzerland

The Leiria Judicial Court sentenced a man to a single sentence of four and a half years’ imprisonment for the crimes of qualified fraud and money laundering, for defrauding insurance companies with false road accidents in Switzerland.

The defendant, 53, then an expat in Switzerland, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for the offense of qualified fraud and 18 months’ imprisonment for money laundering, which in legal terms resulted in one sentence out of four. one and a half years of effective arrest.

In a ruling dated Thursday and to which Luz’s agency had access today, the Leiria Judicial Court found that the defendant “deceived insurance companies and people” in order to “receive improper amounts by creating false schemes and deceiving people.”

Among other things, the court listed a group of people, at that time also emigrants in Switzerland, who, at the request of the defendant or in agreement with him, signed false accident reports or reported fictitious claims to insurance companies.

Of the 21 false accidents between 2009 and 2015 that the collective court found proven, in two the insurance companies discovered the scheme and did not pay compensation.

Another situation involved recovery from the defendant for a leased vehicle in exchange for payment of money to two co-contractors.

According to the court, the man took possession of a vehicle for which the monthly payment had not been paid and asked the leasing company to change ownership, which was rejected, and also refused to hand over the vehicle.

The court also referred to the loan provided by the woman at the request of the defendant to purchase a car, which, according to him, after repairs, he would sell at a higher price and reimburse her for the expenses, which he did not do.

This woman, who had a relationship with the defendant, also sent him her credit card to pay for the plane ticket, but he made the purchases online.

According to the court, the defendant “used part of the wrongfully obtained insurance payments to pay off a personal debt” he had in Portugal.

The ruling said that between 2011 and 2015 he made “46 bank transfers” amounting to approximately 47,800 Swiss francs (49 thousand euros) from two accounts he had with a bank in Switzerland to his bank account in Portugal .

For a group of judges, the defendant received sums to which he was not entitled, “misappropriating them to the detriment of the respective holders,” and “over time, he devoted himself to illegal activities, defrauding third parties to obtain improper amounts while living off these schemes.”

The court also found that the defendant, by transferring amounts that were not owed to him to another country, “concealed the illegal origin of this money, acted illegally” because “he sought to disappear the amounts of money that were not owed to him.” with the intent of forcing them to return to legal trade as if they were legal.”

According to the resolution, at the trial, the defendant, who has a criminal record, admitted “part of the facts charged to him and admitted his ‘participation in the scheme’.”

“(…) It could be inferred that the defendant submitted to the insurance companies several false claims of accidents that never occurred,” the ruling said, claiming that witnesses “unanimously stated that no such accidents occurred.” they did not exist and other incidents were made up in order to deceive insurance companies in order to obtain either the cost of repairs or payment for the vehicle.”

The court decided not to suspend the defendant’s sentence because it realized that “it has become obvious that the mere condemnation of the fact and the threat of a sentence is not enough to meet the needs of general and special prevention.”