Reading woman, brother charged with insurance fraud

A Reading woman and her brother have been charged with insurance fraud after the woman allowed the man, who lives in New York, to use her address to obtain auto insurance at cheaper Pennsylvania rates, authorities said Thursday.

Elsa Perez-Delossantos, 38, allowed Antonio Perez-Delossantos, 37, of Brooklyn to use her address to obtain a Pennsylvania driver's license and insurance at Pennsylvania rates, according to the Pennsylvania attorney general's office.

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The two were among 24 people arrested in an investigation of New York and New Jersey residents using false addresses to obtain Pennsylvania insurance rates.

Pennsylvania insurance rates are $2,000 to $4,000 per year cheaper than in the other two states, authorities said.

All 24 defendants have been charged with insurance fraud, a third-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a $10,000 fine, said Nils Fredericksen, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office.

All were arraigned in Harrisburg and released to await further court action.

Fredericksen said agents broke up a scam in which a Philadelphia title company was busing people in from New York and New Jersey to apply for Pennsylvania driver's licenses and registrations for their vehicles in order to fraudulently obtain cheaper insurance.

"After going through the files of that company we came up with this (Perez-Delossantos) case," Fredericksen said.

Insurance fraud drives up the rates Pennsylvanians pay for auto insurance because New Jersey is first in the nation in auto theft and New York is eighth in accidents staged to make auto insurance claims, Fredericksen said.


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