December 27, 2005
CHELSEA, Mass. --State and local officials on Tuesday announced a campaign to crack down on automobile insurance fraud here, a move that follows similar anti-fraud efforts in Lawrence and other cities with high claims rates.
A task force in Chelsea, immediately north of Boston, will be the eighth such group created since fraud enforcement was stepped up in Lawrence in late 2003.
The Chelsea task force is a joint effort by the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts, Chelsea police, the Suffolk district attorney's office and the state attorney general.
Authorities announced the campaign beneath a billboard erected to publicize a telephone hot line people can call to report insurance fraud.
Among other things, investigators will look into cases in which drivers are suspected of staging accidents so they can file insurance claims and receive compensation for injuries. Last year, 62 people claimed injuries for every 100 accidents in Chelsea, compared with a statewide rate of 36 such claims for every 100 collisions.
Insurers say a crackdown in Lawrence reduced claims there by $28.7 million in 2004 compared with the previous year. The decline helped trigger a planned reduction in Lawrence's 2006 auto insurance rates that is greater than the average 8.7 percent cut statewide.
Other task forces were formed in Boston, Brockton, Lowell, Lynn, Randolph and Springfield/Holyoke.
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