Insurance Fraud: Get Your Story Straight

A woman from Coral Gables found herself caught in an insurance scam after an alert witness helped authorities unravel her deceitful plot. Silvia Maria Almeida, along with her passenger, Milton Yunielki Acosta, attempted to deceive the police by falsely reporting a collision between her black Mercedes-Benz and a pickup truck in Hialeah Gardens. However, their inconsistencies and a witness’s intervention exposed their fraudulent scheme.

During the investigation, discrepancies emerged as Almeida and Acosta contradicted each other’s accounts. Almeida claimed to have known Acosta for months, while Acosta stated that he had just met her.

Upon inspecting Almeida’s Mercedes-Benz C-Class, an officer noted the "extensive" damage that Almeida reported to the vehicle’s rim. However, the officer could not observe any corresponding damage on the red Dodge Ram truck, as described by Almeida.

At this point, a vigilant witness approached the police officer, disclosing that Almeida’s car had been parked outside a nearby body shop prior to the incident and already displayed signs of damage. According to the fraudsters, the crash allegedly occurred at an intersection.

Furthermore, the witness revealed that he had observed Almeida and Acosta driving around the neighborhood and inspecting other vehicles before the alleged crash.

Subsequently, Almeida confessed to fabricating the entire incident. She admitted that the staged collision was an attempt to recreate a previous crash she had been involved in back in March in Miami. Neither Almeida nor the other driver had stopped or reported the March incident to the authorities.

Allegedly, Almeida selected the Dodge Ram for the scam because it resembled the truck she had collided with in Miami. Detectives also discovered that the pickup truck involved in the fraudulent crash was registered to the very same body shop mentioned by the witness.