Here is a recipe for car insurance fraud: First, attach any of three types of automotive bumpers to a modified forklift. Second, drive that forklift into an already damaged but repairable vehicle. Third, inflate the repair estimate and file a fraudulent insurance claim.

R Seth Williams, Philadelphia district attorney, outlined this scenario following a recently concluded undercover investigation of University Collision Center Inc in the Grays Ferry neighbourhood of the city. The investigation began in February 2010.

The office's insurance fraud unit started with a tip from an insurance company and conducted extensive video and audio surveillance. For investigative purposes, officials utilised a decoy car and provided University Collision with a bogus insurance policy.

Purportedly, the fraudulent practices occurred over four years and resulted in the probable loss of millions of dollars through thousands of improper insurance claims.

On 19 April, the district attorney announced charges of corruption, dealing with unlawful proceeds, insurance fraud, theft, conspiracy and, for some defendants, bribery, against University Collision's owner, its manager, seven automotive damage appraisers, a police officer and a lawyer. The police department impounded the forklift and other devices. Details about the forklift brand, model and age were not available.
University Collision has been in business for more than two decades and advertises its automotive capabilities for frame straightening, body restoration, custom painting, window replacement, dent removal and part replacement.

The district attorney's office established the insurance fraud unit in 1995 as a result of the passage of the Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Prevention Act of 1994. In a typical fraud, a person makes a statement in support of an insurance claim; the statement contains false, incomplete or misleading information; the information is material and the statement is made with the intent to defraud an insurer.