The Mossos d'Esquadra have dismantled a criminal group based in Vallès Oriental with ramifications in Barcelona for allegedly defrauding insurance companies for a value of more than 250,000 euros.
According to the first information, there would be 19 people affected, for whom 39 insurance policies were contracted.
The police investigation lasted a year and culminated last Monday with the arrest of seven people and two others reported as alleged members of the group that carried out the fraud. The leader of the group was an insurance expert and with the knowledge that this gave him, he took out insurance from several companies for the same premises, caused an accident and ended up collecting several compensations for the same event.
The researchers consider it proven that the group was made up of people with family or professional ties. The 39 policies contracted in the 19 insurance companies were for home insurance. The insured risk was located at four different addresses corresponding to homes and premises located in Canovelles, Lliçà d'Amunt, Parets del Vallès and Santa Eulàlia de Ronçana.
Those investigated initially took out insurance policies simultaneously from different companies. That is, the same household had about five insurance policies that covered the same risk. They then caused the original damage that allowed the same incident to be reported to the different companies, so different compensations were charged for each incident. The money was deposited into bank accounts in the name of the group leader.
Following this mechanism, this man rented a premises in Lliçà d'Amunt and two months later the premises were insured with nine different companies. All policies had the same validity and were in the name of the same person, also linked to the plot.
Eight months after the contract was hired, an accident was caused on purpose, causing the premises to flood and consequently damage to the parquet that had been installed. This single incident would serve to communicate the damage caused to all companies.
The leader of the group normally attended to the experts when they came to see the damage and told them that he preferred to repair the damage with professionals he trusted and therefore requested compensation and not repair. The group provided the same budgets and invoices issued by professionals linked to the plot.
Finally, the companies understood that the damages had been repaired and entered the amounts corresponding to the compensation granted into the current accounts that appeared in the files. Thus, for these nine fraudulently declared accidents in Lliçà, the group received compensation for nearly 35,000 euros.
This dynamic was repeated in other premises rented in Canovelles, Parets del Vallès, and a house in Canovelles, Parets del Vallès and a house in Santa Eulàlia de Ronçana. Together, the group raised about 250,000 euros.
