Staged crash crackdown

A five-month investigation into staged crashes and insurance fraud netted arrest warrants for 53 people, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies announced Thursday.

Search warrants also were served at four medical clinics as part of Operation No Pain No Gain, the latest such probe in Hillsborough in recent years.

Tampa is considered the nation's epicenter for staged crashes.

Some suspects are accused of participating in crashes; others of running clinics involved in insurance scams. Deputies said the charges range from conspiracy to commit racketeering to filing false insurance claims.

The four clinics are: Doctor Florida Rehabilitation, 2123 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.; Injury Health Care Therapy, 5537 Sheldon Road; Recovery Rehabilitation Services, 7025 W. Hillsborough Ave.; and Healing Touch, 6821 W. Hillsborough Ave.

Authorities said the clinics scammed insurers out of $1 million to $2 million during the course of the investigation.

Among those implicated were office managers, a billing clerk, a massage therapist and receptionists.

Fraudulent claims take advantage of loopholes in Florida's personal injury protection, or PIP, insurance. All Florida drivers must carry "no fault" insurance, which entitles them to $10,000 in medical care for injuries sustained in a wreck, regardless of blame.

From 2008 through 2010, PIP fraud totaled $853 million in Florida, including vehicle damage and medical treatment, said Ronald Poindexter, National Insurance Crime Bureau director in Tampa. Insurers pass on those costs to policyholders as a "fraud tax" of about $50 a vehicle.

Last year, Florida had more questionable claims than any other state, and Tampa had more than any other city, according to statistics compiled by the bureau.

Statewide, such claims increased 119 percent from 2008 through 2010. In Tampa, they jumped 491 percent.

Investigators said recruiters solicit people to stage crashes and go to a particular clinic, where they sign blank medical forms. Participants are coached on how to describe pain and injuries.

The sheriff's office said it first saw a pattern of questionable crashes in September 2009.

In April 2010, deputies arrested about 55 people in connection with an intricate ring that staged nearly three-dozen wrecks.

jpoltilove@tampatrib.com

(813) 259-7691