Parked Audi goes 'bang'; 7.97 million won in insurance payments ... Acquitted after saying, "I only lent my name" [True Case]

[Financial News] Late at night on a road in Mapo-gu, Seoul, a motorcycle approached a parked Audi. A short while later, it rammed the right front bumper of the Audi.
At first glance, it looked like an ordinary fender bender. But investigators did not believe the crash was accidental. They judged it to be so-called "perpetrator-victim collusion" insurance fraud, in which the parties on both sides stage a crash after conspiring in advance and then collect insurance money.
After the crash, the insurance company paid 7,976,020 won for vehicle repairs. The car in question was an Audi registered in A's name. A also received a transfer of 313,560 won from the insurance company.
Prosecutors believed A had also taken part in the insurance fraud. They said A, B, C and D were all neighborhood acquaintances with a senior-junior relationship, and had conspired to stage an intentional crash and make it look accidental in order to collect insurance money.
According to the indictment, the crash occurred during the evening of August 7, 2021, on a road near Yonggang-dong in Mapo-gu, Seoul. Investigators found that C, acting on B's instructions, rode a motorcycle and deliberately rammed the right front bumper of an Audi registered in A's name while it was parked.
The group was subsequently found to have filed a claim with the insurance company, making it appear that a genuine traffic accident had occurred. The company was deceived and paid out insurance money for repairs.
The key issue was whether A knew about the crash. Although the vehicle used in the incident was registered in A's name, A denied the allegations, saying, "I only lent my name for the vehicle registration at D's request, because D wanted to run a rental business."
According to legal sources on the 10th, the Seoul Western District Court's 8th Criminal Division, a single-judge panel presided over by Judge Lee Se-chang, acquitted A on July 15. A had been indicted on charges of violating the Special Act on the Prevention of Insurance Fraud.
The court acknowledged that a vehicle registered in A's name had been used in the insurance fraud. It also acknowledged that A had received 313,560 won from the insurance company.
However, it ruled that the fact that A was the registered owner of the vehicle alone was not enough to establish a conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. The court said it could not conclude that A's claim of having only lent their name for the vehicle was false.
The court found that D, not A, had actually driven the vehicle. It also determined that A did not appear to have been involved in either the crash or the process of filing the insurance claim.
The court also found insufficient evidence that A had planned the insurance fraud in advance with B and the others, or that they had shared an understanding even without an explicit agreement. It further ruled that the 313,560 won A received was unlikely to have been payment for taking part in the fraud.
The court said, "The evidence submitted by the prosecution alone is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant conspired with B and the others or took part in the fraud at issue."
[email protected] Choi Seung-han Reporter