Paying your insurance premium can seem like a waste of money. The longer you go without actually needing your coverage, the more it can feel like a legal obligation to keep throwing away a significant amount of income.
You need to have insurance on your vehicle to drive and insurance on your home if you have a mortgage or just don’t want to get sued if a visitor gets hurt. After years of paying for protection, you might decide that you have earned a claim, even if your current circumstances don’t justify making one.
Fabricating extra damage on a real claim or completely making up a scenario so that you can make an insurance claim may seem like a way to recoup all of the money you paid for the protection you’ve never needed. In reality, you could be setting yourself up for insurance fraud charges.
Texas has laws against making inaccurate insurance claims
Texas state law is very clear about the obligation of consumers to honestly report their circumstances to an insurance provider when making a claim against the policy. Exaggerating the circumstances or completely making up an incident, like a crash, so that you can have cosmetic damage to your vehicle repaired, could be insurance fraud.
The same would be true if you know someone who does home repairs and they help you make it look like a tree fell on your house so that the insurance company will pay to replace your roof. Any misrepresentation that gets you money you would not have had otherwise could land you in hot water if the insurance company or law enforcement discover the lie.
Those accused of insurance fraud or other white-collar crimes will face serious penalties that warrant a robust criminal defense. If you’ve been accused of insurance fraud, speak to an experienced attorney right away.