Utah Man Headed to Jail for Causing 22 Car Crashes in 5 Years for the Insurance Money
That’s one way to make a living.
A Utah man has been sentenced to four months in jail after being convicted of intentionally causing 22 car crashes over the last five years in order to collect the insurance payouts, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
According to court records, thirty-seven-year-old Navid Monjazeb received just under $56,000 over the last five years through a systematic campaign of crashing into innocent drivers, then bullying them into accepting responsibility for the accident and sometimes demanding cash on the spot. He even carried around a pre-made waiver that he would "aggressively" push the other driver to sign, which stated that they were at fault.
Monjazeb would reportedly accelerate into other cars on the highway as they merged into his lane, striking the rear quarter panel with his front fender. After pressuring the other driver into accepting responsibility, he would then submit damage claims to his insurance company for thousands of dollars, and the photos he submitted as proof often showed far more damage to his car than his victims remembered.
On top of that, the Tribune reports he repeatedly forged documents claiming his car had been repaired, then submitted different photos of the same damage for more money. He cycled through three cars over those five years, using a Saab 9-3, an Audi A4, and a Toyota Prius in his scheme.
No one was injured in any of the accidents, but Third District Judge William Kendall said Monjazeb's actions posed a real danger to the public as he sentenced him to 360 days in jail, with 240 of those suspended. For his part, Monjazeb maintains that not every accident was his fault.
"I know I didn’t do everything right here," he said, according to the Tribune. "But I think it’s unfair to take the blame for what everybody has done."