Penza, 30 October 2014. PenzaNews. The sentence to three Penza region residents found guilty of insurance fraud, and six more people convicted of complicity, came into force.

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“It has been established that Sergei Filatkin together with Oleg Kravtsov created an organized gang to scam out insurance money. Another gang member, Dmitry Volokushin, was involved as a trustee. Alexei Grushkin and Alexander Demin, traffic police officers in authority with the right to file paperwork on the accidents that occurred on the territory of Penza and the Penza region for insurance claims, were the accomplices,” Natalia Bychenkova, the spokeswoman of the Penza regional court, told PenzaNews agency.

She explained that falsified car repair costs reports were forged by Evgeny Yaroshenko, a specialist of one of expert companies.

“Afterwards, they appeared in the fictitious documents on the accident compiled by the gang members. Other accomplices were repeatedly filing numerous falsified documents to Penza and Moscow insurance companies,” the agency interlocutor added.

The court spokesman clarified that the scammers managed to receive refunds from three insurance companies for 24 falsified accidents that allegedly occurred in Moscow and Penza.

“As a rule, the cars that participated in the accidents were bought by the fraudsters in already damaged condition, and then they simply staged the accidents,” she said.

According to Natalia Bychenkova, the fraudsters stole over 1.6 million rubles from the insurance companies during the period from October 2011 to May 2012: however, several scams for a total of 1.2 million rubles failed by reasons beyond their control.

“Taking into account the role of each defendant in the commission of crimes, their characteristics, the presence of mitigating and aggravating circumstances, the court decided on the following punishment: Sergei Filatkin is sentenced to 4 years; Oleg Kravtsov —to 6.5 years in total; Alexander Demin — to 1 year and 8 months in a penal colony. The rest of the defendants received suspended sentences from 1 year and 4 months to 3 years. Moreover, the two companies were found entitled to recover material damages from Sergei Filatkin and Oleg Kravtsov. The question on the recovery in favor of the third insurance company is forwarded for consideration to the civil court. Oleg Kravtsov, Alexander Demin and Alexei Grushkin disagreed with the sentence and submitted appeals, which were dismissed by the judicial board for criminal cases of Penza regional court. The sentence has come into force,” Natalia Bychenkova summarized.