According to Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Julie Benafield Bowman, an alleged auto insurance fraud ringleader recently turned himself in to the Little Rock police.
A release by the Arkansas Insurance Department stated that Frederick Watson is suspected of being the mastermind behind a car-crash ring that has ripped off insurance companies for hundreds of thousands of dollars over a 12-year period. His accomplices, cousin Mark Watson and Rebekah Rahn, also were arrested.
Watson and the rest of the ring are believed to be responsible for staging more than 40 wrecks over the life of the operation. The crew targeted people pulling out of driveways or going through intersections, which often caused injury to the unsuspecting driver. There also are alleged instances of group members purposefully running into trees, bridges, and light polls.
Bowman reported that the Department's Criminal Investigation Division started to look into the case when an insurance adjuster reported that she suspected one of her clients was intentionally crashed into. Investigators then began to see the same vehicle involved in more than one accident and similar names for the drivers involved. The final clue in the crime scheme included similar false police reports, which repeatedly stated that victims had fallen asleep at the wheel.
“A common thread soon began to emerge as the department looked at police accident reports,” said Bowman, in the release.
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