Scratched, Called, Then Crashed: Suspicious Reenactment at a Reservoir Before Dawn [Claiming a Lie]

[Financial News] He had not meant for it to go that far. A still regrets that moment. If he could, he would turn back time. But crime is punished based on what you do. Once he did it, the law treated it as his intent. The choice he made that day ended up turning him into an offender three years later.

One early morning in 2020, at a fishing spot near a reservoir in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. Feeling hungry, A wanted to go buy something to eat. He borrowed a sedan registered under his friend B and headed to a nearby mart.
After buying instant noodles, snacks, and a few other things, he was on his way back to the fishing spot. In his haste, A scraped a parked car with the right side of the sedan he was driving. He should have admitted his fault on the spot. Instead, he fled and started scheming.
He immediately called another friend in the group, C, and told him to bring over a different car they had rented. Without much explanation, A pressed C in an urgent voice, and C hurriedly drove over. But A told him not to come to the accident site, and instead to meet on a farm road on the opposite side of the reservoir from where they had been.
"All right, let’s get started." A said he had a plan and tried to win his friends over. They were skeptical at first, but eventually gave in. On A’s cue, C stepped on the accelerator.The sedan was left standing still, and the rental car was deliberately driven into the part of the sedan that had been dented in the earlier collision, on purpose. At that moment, three members of their group were sitting inside the sedan.

Right after that, Acalled the insurance company that had issued the policy for the rental car. He falsely reported that the rental car had collided with the parked sedan, causing bodily injury and property damage. Starting that same day,he and the three people who had been in the sedan were admitted to a hospital for three days.
The total amountpaid out as medical expenses for the four of them came to about 1.8 million won. A had the insurance company pay that amount to the hospital as insurance benefits. He then intended to extract additional settlement money, but the scheme was exposed. Although no cash had yet gone directly into A’s pocket, he had staged a traffic accident and deceived the insurer into paying out, so he was indicted for violating the Special Act on Prevention of Insurance Fraud.
At the trial held three years after the staged accident, A was fined 1 million won. The court explained, "We took into account the amount of damage, the circumstances under which A became involved in the case, and, in addition, his age, environment, family situation, motive, method, and the consequences."

taeil0808@fnnews.com Kim Tae-il Reporter