Body Shop Owner Jailed For $85K Worth Of Inflated Claims

The former owner of a Darby Borough auto body shop was sentenced to 23 months of intermediate punishment Thursday after pleading guilty to insurance fraud and receiving stolen property. Franklin Thomas Wilson, who owned Transformer Collision Specialist at 1006 Summit St., was among 11 people arrested in March 2015 for an alleged $85,000 insurance fraud scheme that included damaging vehicles with a fork lift to falsely inflate claims. Wilson would meet with customers seeking body work on their vehicles and provide them with an estimate, according to a 30-page criminal complaint and affidavit of probable cause written by County Detective Lawrence Patterson.