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Four men have been charged with auto insurance fraud after their alleged plans went sour. On June 17, 1998, Guillermo Sanchez and his nephew Hugo, both of Tulare, California, reported the theft of their 1997 Ford F-150 truck to the Tulare Police Department. They told police that the truck had been stolen sometime during the previous evening while it was parked in front of Guillermo’s house. A theft report was filed with Allied Insurance the same day.
The truck was recovered almost immediately. The California Highway Patrol found the vehicle in a rural area of eastern Fresno. According to the police, the vehicle was intact and nothing was missing from it. The interior of the bed had been slightly burned in an apparently unsuccessful attempt at torching the truck. The CHP towed the vehicle to a storage yard where it was later examined by a Special Investigator for Allied. He found an automatic teller machine receipt for gas inside the truck and reported it to the Tulare County DA’s Auto Insurance Fraud Unit and the DOI Fraud Division, resulting in a joint investigation.
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According to investigators who examined the truck, there were no signs of forced entry, and although it appeared that the steering locking mechanism had been tampered with, it was still functioning. Investigators also learned that the only way the vehicle could be started was with a key, and that the police report filed by the Sanchezes indicated that Guillermo and Hugo had the only keys. The investigators also learned that the ATM receipt from a gas station in Kingsburg, dated June 17, 1998, at 12:05 PM, was from Hugo Sanchez’s bank account.
Investigators surmise that Guillermo Sanchez could no longer afford the payments on the truck, prompting the Sanchezes to arrange with Jose Valenzuela of Fresno to dispose of the truck. Valenzuela, in turn, allegedly subcontracted Amigh Smith of Fresno to help accomplish the disposal. According to DOI fraud investigators, during the late evening hours of June 16, 1998, Hugo Sanchez drove the truck from Tulare to his apartment in Clovis (stopping in Kingsburg to purchase gas.) Hugo allegedly parked the truck at the apartment complex and gave Valenzuela the keys and four hundred dollars for his part in getting rid of the truck. Investigators contend that Valenzuela gave Smith the truck keys and three hundred dollars in payment for disposing of the truck. Smith and an unidentified accomplice then drove the truck away from Hugo’s apartment.
DOI fraud investigators further allege that Smith drove the truck to a rural area, followed by an unidentified male in another car. Investigators believe the two men attempted to set the truck on fire in order to destroy it.
As a result of the Sanchezes’ fraudulent activities, Allied Insurance Company could potentially have lost more than $20,000.
But Hugo Sanchez had a good reason to believe he would get away with the scam. According to investigators, Sanchez’s 1996 Mercury Sable was allegedly stolen on August 29, 1997. Allied paid out $15,000 on that claim – but the company is now questioning the validity of that claim as well.
Smith has been charged with one felony count of insurance fraud and one felony count of arson. Hugo Sanchez has been charged with two felony counts of insurance fraud, two felony counts of perjury, one felony count of arson and two counts of filing a false police report. Valenzuela faces one count of felony insurance fraud. Guillermo Sanchez has not yet been arrested. He is a fugitive and is believed to be hiding in Mexico.
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