Police have charged 37 people with more than 130 charges after an early-morning sweep in the Greater Toronto Area targeting an alleged vehicle- fraud operation.
Police say they were initially tipped off by a staged collision in 2009, and teamed up with the Insurance Bureau of Canada, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario and Statefarm Insurance for a lengthy investigation.
That led to Thursday’s raids, which began around 6 a.m. and focused on dozens of homes in Toronto and Brampton.
Toronto police Insp. Gord Jones says many of the charges relate to insurance crimes, which he says cost motorists several billion dollars a year.
Toronto police also made a direct appeal to members of the South Asian community, asking them not to let anyone persuade them to get involved in these kinds of scams, adding most of those involved in the staged accidents were from that community.
Charges have also been laid against certain medical centres that were associated with various cases, as well as some paralegals.