Auto Insurance fraud suspect pleads guilty
Santa Paula News
Published: November 13, 2009
District Attorney Greg Totten announced November 10 that Hidalgo Lopez Gomez, 30, of Oxnard, pleaded guilty to felony auto insurance fraud.
District Attorney Greg Totten announced November 10 that Hidalgo Lopez Gomez, 30, of Oxnard, pleaded guilty to felony auto insurance fraud. When Gomez pleaded guilty, he submitted a cashier’s check to the victim, Infinity Insurance, for $3,574, which represents the full amount of restitution. Gomez will be sentenced on December 4 in Ventura County Superior Court.
On January 29, 2009 at 5 a.m., Gomez contacted the Oxnard Police Department and reported his 2008 Dodge truck stolen after he went inside a market on Saviers Road. Gomez claimed he left his truck running as he went inside the market to buy coffee. When he returned outside, his truck was gone. Later that same day, Gomez contacted Infinity Insurance and made a claim for the theft.
Gomez’s claim was assigned to Infinity’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU). An SIU investigator made an inquiry with the Department of Homeland Security and learned the license plate readers at the San Ysidro border crossing recorded Gomez’s truck traveling into Mexico on January 29, 2009 at 3:37 a.m. There was no record of the truck returning to the United States.
Since Gomez’s account of how and when his vehicle was “stolen” did not add up, Infinity Insurance referred the case to the California Department of Insurance (CDI) Fraud Division. After additional investigation by CDI fraud detectives, Gomez was subsequently arrested and charged with felony auto insurance fraud.
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