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Police bust fraudster family faking car crashes

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Police bust fraudster family faking car crashes
Photo: DPA

German police have arrested 15 members of the same family after it emerged they had been intentionally causing car accidents to cash in on insurance, making around €150,000 over several years.

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Officers raided several houses on Tuesday in the Offenbach and Frankfurt areas, coming away with evidence, such as cars and €13,000 cash, that the family had been operating an insurance fraud ring.

Fifteen men between the ages of 22 and 77 were taken into custody. But all were let go bar a 30-year-old from Offenbach thought to be the ringleader, who alone is thought to have taken €50,000 of the illegal winnings.

The family is thought to have been staging accidents since 2007 and while investigators have identified 70 crashes, they said they suspect the actual figure to be higher.

Investigators began to suspect foul play when they noticed the same names were springing up reporting accidents as both the victim and the guilty party interchangeably.

DPA/The Local/jcw

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