"Even with Accomplices, You Repay It All": No Splitting Liability [Filing False Claims]

[The Financial News] He would always drive around, tailing only those cars that were breaking traffic rules. Intersections where drivers had to make an illegal left turn from a straight lane, or roads where frequent lane changes forced sudden swerves, were his favorite hunting grounds. From the description he might sound like a traffic cop, but his purpose was the exact opposite.
He deliberately picked out vehicles that were only mildly ignoring traffic signals or other rules,with the aim of intentionally causing traffic accidents.Because the other driver knew they were at fault, they never suspected it was insurance fraud. The insurers did not catch on either. In this way, for more than four years, he lived virtually as a "professional insurance fraudster" without being detected.

In his 30s, Mr. A recruited accomplices to play the roles in the scheme he had devised.He formed a sort of team of four people, including two tuning shop owners and one broker who handled referrals.together with himself.
Mr. A bought used cars and cruised around promising spots, looking for targets. Once he found a suitable victim, he would deliberately cause a traffic accident.When an accident occurred, he would alternately send the cars to tuning shops run by his accomplices and have them inflate the repair costs,collecting insurance payouts such as unrepaired vehicle compensation—estimated repair costs paid in advance before the car is actually fixed.
Using this method, he committed more than 70 fraudulent acts over four years, rotating six different vehicles.The total insurance money he wrongfully obtained exceeded 570 million won.in all.
But no insurance fraud lasts forever. Mr. A was eventually caught and indicted for violating the Special Act on Prevention of Insurance Fraud, among other charges. At the first trial, he was sentenced to two years and six months in prison. He appealed, but the court dismissed the appeal, and the sentence was finalized.

Separately from the criminal case, the insurer filed a civil suit seeking damages to recover the defrauded insurance money. Mr. A argued in response that he could not be forced to pay back the entire amount because he had split the proceeds with his accomplices. His position was that he would only return the portion he personally kept.
The court flatly rejected that claim. Out of the 53 million won in fraudulently obtained insurance money that the court recognized, it ordered him to compensate the full remaining 45.5 million won, after deducting the 7.5 million won he had already repaid. On top of that, it ruled that he must pay delay damages, calculated at 5% annual interest from the day after the final insurance payment for about two years, and 12% per year thereafter.The court held that when an unlawful act is committed jointly, each perpetrator bears responsibility to the victim for the entire amount of the damage,not just a fraction.
The judges stated, "Even if one perpetrator’s involvement in the wrongful act is relatively minor compared to the others, the scope of that perpetrator’s liability toward the victim cannot be limited to only a portion of the damages." They added, "Even if the degrees of negligence differ, they are not to be evaluated individually; rather, the negligence must be viewed as a whole, attributable to all joint tortfeasors together."
taeil0808@fnnews.com Kim Tae-il Reporter