Nine Sentenced in Indiana for Staging Car Crashes

A Michigan City man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison for staging car crashes to collect insurance payouts, federal court records show. Robert Lemon also must pay $191,449 jointly with several co-defendants and serve two years on supervised release. Lemon and seven of his co-defendants each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Nine people were indicted in November in the alleged insurance fraud scheme. They were accused of staging car crashes in Northwest Indiana and Illinois and reporting them to local police and insurance companies between December 2005 and July 2009.