Bucks County Auto Body Shop Owner Busted For Insurance Fraud
by Alex Lloyd Gross
August 25 2022
When someone owns a body shop, they are hoping to forge relationships with Insurance Carriers. When that happens, they become trusted and when they say a car needs $9876.00 in parts and labor, they are taken at their word. That as opposed to having an appraiser come out. This speeds up to process for policy holders.
Unfortunately, investigators for The Bucks County District Attorney found otherwise and arrested John Paul Reis, owner of the Chalfont Collision center and charged him with Insurance fraud, deceptive business practices . He would allegedly hit vehicles with a hammer or spray them with a compound to make them look worse than they were .
The charges filed against Reis are the result of a 4-year investigation by the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Insurance Fraud Unit, that began in September 2018 after receiving a referral from Erie Insurance’s Special Investigations Unit that alleged the Chalfont Collision Center, at 74 Park Avenue, was enhancing and or creating damage to customers’ vehicles to inflate insurance estimates.
Authorities were tipped off by Erie Insurance Company that something did not look right with some claims. As the investigation progressed, other insurance companies were contacted and found fishy billing, authorities said. Erie Insurance, Nationwide Insurance, CSAA Insurance Group and Liberty Mutual Insurance collectively identified 289 estimates that contained artificial or inflated damages incorporated into the true facts of the estimates, submitted by Chalfont Collision between 2014 and 2022. He allegedly admitted to police that he used to spray compounds on vehicles to make them appear more damaged than they were.
