Surveillance Reveals Insurance Fraud Group Staged Accidents, Strategically Smashed Vehicles

At least a dozen people in New Rochelle and the Bronx were indicted Wednesday in a cunning car fraud scheme to collect insurance by strategically smashing vehicles and submitting big-buck bills while scrimping on the actual repairs, prosecutors said.

The two-year investigation dubbed “Operation Sledgehammer” led to charges against nine individuals and five body shop businesses in Westchester County and the north Bronx, prosecutors said.

The defendants were part of a fraud ring named Jawahir Enterprise, authorities said.

According to prosecutors, ring members between May 2019 and March intentionally made damaged cars even worse when they were brought into body shops — sometimes with the owner’s knowledge, sometimes without, said prosecutors.