Since May 2024, the Organized Auto Insurance Fraud Task Force, a specialist team of investigators from California’s Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, the CHP, and the California Department of Insurance, has been conducting sting operations. Investigators would utilize bait cars with varying degrees of damage to determine whether body shops would commit insurance fraud.
If not the owners themselves, investigators also looked to see if shop owners would encourage customers to commit fraud in hopes of a bigger payout.
The County of Santa Clara examined numerous body shops and determined them to be clean—but they caught Jairon Escobar, proprietor of Radiator & Body Parts in San Jose, red-handed.
Investigators employed a “newly purchased” Toyota Camry with a single dent as a bait vehicle. Escobar almost immediately encouraged the undercover spy to commit fraud.
The undercover bait car had thousands worth of damage, apparently
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Escobar not only instructed the agent on what to say to the insurance company, but he also submitted phony reports.
“Escobar encouraged the undercover officer to tell the insurance company that there was more than $3,000 in damages to the vehicle. Escobar submitted the vehicle estimate of repairs to Mercury Insurance,” wrote the DA’s office.
The next week, investigators caught Escobar, and he is now facing trial for attempting insurance fraud, a felony crime.
The DA hopes to make an example of him
Jeff Rosen, the county’s district attorney, believes that Escobar will serve as a warning to adjacent shops, which have mainly operated normally.
His trial should serve as a warning to drivers, who could face heavy consequences if convicted of faking reports.
“To body shop owners that choose illegal profits over honest work, know this: an undercover officer could be your next customer,” he wrote in a statement. “Fraud isn’t worth your freedom. Auto insurance fraud drives up premiums and hits drivers in their wallets.”
