Six caught, five sought in alleged staged-accident scam in Macon

The swindle was simple enough: Rent a moving truck, rear-end a car with fellow scammers on board and cash in on insurance payouts.

But insurance investigators became suspicious when they learned of three such staged-wreck scenarios in Macon in a four-month span last year.

Now 11 people from Bibb County face fraud charges for allegedly trying to collect a total of $110,000 in insurance claims.

Authorities said six people in Macon had been jailed Monday and that five more were wanted for a range of allegations.

The supposed caper involved phony accidents set up using rented moving trucks, including U-Hauls. Officials said the culprits, upon renting the trucks, would buy the most insurance coverage they could.

The trucks would then rear-end cars with people the scammers knew riding in the cars, officials at the state insurance commission said. Those passengers apparently feigned injury to cash in on insurance payouts.

Two of the allegedly staged crashes happened in September 2014 on Vineville and Pio Nono avenues, and involved wrecks in which children were among the passengers in the struck cars.

A third happened in May 2014 on Evergreen Drive, which parallels Interstate 75, west of Houston Avenue.

It wasn’t clear, investigators said, whether all the people charged were working together in each instance. None of the suspects was thought to have received insurance-claim checks.

Those arrested and being held at the Bibb jail included:

Haaruwn Prince, 25, charged with two counts of insurance fraud, two counts of false report of a crime and four counts of cruelty to children.

Zanquanishia Floyd, 20, charged with insurance fraud, false report of a crime, theft by deception and two counts of cruelty to children.

Sammie Lee Starks, 19, charged with insurance fraud and theft by deception.

Linniece Victoria Starks, 19, charged with insurance fraud, theft by deception and filing a false report of a crime.

Jonathan Gutierrez, 22, charged with insurance fraud and theft by deception.

Darnez Rashod Cotton, 22, charged with insurance fraud.

Authorities said five other suspects were being sought: Demario Anton James, 23; Sammy Lee Briggs Jr., 52; Tamika Dashon Hogan, 20; Bryant Orlando Tanner, 46, and Sherrod Herschel James, 22.

Contact writer Joe Kovac Jr. at 744-4397 and follow him on Twitter@joekovacjr.

This story was originally published August 24, 2015 at 7:46 PM with the headline "Six caught, five sought in alleged staged-accident scam in Macon ."