Selah Man Sentenced For Insurance Fraud, Filing Duplicate Claims

A Selah, WA man will spend 120 days at home due to electronic detention after pleading guilty to multiple counts of insurance fraud.

  The man tried to submit a car accident claim to multiple companies

According to the Washington State Insurance Commissioner's office, Joseph David Calvert had filed a claim in April 2020 with Homesite Home Insurance Co. after he'd run his car into a vehicle lift inside his shop. Homesite denied the $10,651.44 claim after learning he'd already filed the exact claim damages with Farmers Insurance and had already been paid.

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After Homesite denied the claim, they reported it to the Insurance Commissioner's Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU). Then, according to information from the Commissioner's Office:

"A week and a half after Homesite denied the claim, Calvert filed a claim with Metromile Insurance Company, stating he’d run his vehicle into an object. Metromile requested photos from Calvert’s earlier claims and discovered it was the same damage that Calvert had claimed previously. They also denied the claim for $7,916.15 and referred the claim to CIU."

Calvert plead guilty in November and was sentenced to 120 days of home electronic detention, and ordered to pay $600 in court costs. According to the Insurance Commissioner's office fraud can cost the average consumer between $400 and $700 in increased premiums.