Three cars, three staged accidents: Busan man jailed for deliberate crashes in insurance fraud scheme

A man was sentenced to 10 months in prison Saturday for deliberately ramming his car into other drivers three times over three years — using a Porsche, a tow truck and a BMW — to collect insurance payouts, a court in Busan said.

Prosecutors said the man, in his 20s, deliberately rammed his Porsche into a taxi that was changing lanes in Busan's Sasang District in April 2021, then filed an insurance claim as if the crash had been accidental, collecting 13.28 million won ($9,600).

He struck again in July 2023, driving a tow truck into an 8-ton cargo truck that was changing lanes and receiving about 5.27 million won, and again in January 2024, crashing a BMW into a Hyundai Tucson for roughly 4.54 million won.

Under Korean traffic law, drivers changing lanes are typically presumed at fault in a collision, allowing the man to collect payouts from the other drivers' insurers even though he had caused the crashes himself.

He argued that the crashes were unavoidable accidents, but the Busan District Court cited forensic analysis from the National Forensic Service and dashcam footage to prove the collisions were intentional. The man had previously been convicted of insurance fraud in 2023 and given an eight-month suspended sentence.

"He reoffended despite a prior record of insurance fraud, and he has shown no remorse, denying part of the charges," the court said. "Because only part of the damage has been recovered, he cannot avoid punishment commensurate with his guilt."

BY HAN YOUNG-HYE [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]