HIALEAH, Fla. – Hialeah police arrested a man Monday, accusing him of staging car crashes and filing duplicate insurance claims in an attempt to defraud auto insurance companies.
Marlon Aldecoa, 22, of northwest Miami-Dade, faced charges of organized scheme to defraud, staging an accident and filing fraudulent insurance claims.
Recommended Videos
Police said three other people were involved in the scheme and remained at large at the time of Aldecoa’s arrest: Dalin De La Torre, 21; Yalema Gonzalez, 47; and Yander Sanchez, 26.
According to a police report, police were first made aware of the scheme on Sept. 22, when an insurance investigator shared his suspicions about a July 7 crash in Hialeah where Aldecoa claimed to be injured.
The report states that Aldecoa had filed a claim for an identical crash on Sept. 30, 2021.
An insurance investigator told officers that repair claims in the sum of $632.37 had been paid to Aldecoa.
Police said during the July 7 “crash,” body camera footage showed purportedly-fresh rear bumper damage on Aldecoa’s car.
But, according to police, footage from mobile license plate readers revealed that Aldecoa had been driving around the city with the same rear bumper damage since Sept. 30, 2021.
Police said the four defrauded insurance companies to the tune of $53,000 during the scheme.
According to police, Gonzalez has allegedly been involved in seven car crashes dating back to 2007, all of which involved insurance claims. At least one, in 2015, was determined to have been staged and an insurance company wouldn’t pay for a Feb. 2021 crash either.
Police wrote that Aldecoa “partially admitted to not repairing his vehicle before (the July) accident and then claimed more damage was sustained.”
This was “not true based on pictures and evidence gathered,” the report states.
Police took Aldecoa to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he was being held on a $22,500 bond.