Insurance Company Uncovered Taxi Fraud Scheme

March 21--An insurance company cracked a Charlotte taxi and limousine fraud scheme in which 70 drivers listed the same Waxhaw address, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Insurance said Monday.

Stonewood Insurance Co. found numerous policies using the same "garaging" address, which prompted the company to look further into the situation and contact the Department of Insurance with its findings, department spokesman Colin Day said.

The drivers were all independent, although some had a name for their company, Day said in response to questions from the Observer. "But it was just a single cab business," he said.

Each driver was charged with one count of misdemeanor rate evasion in Mecklenburg County, N.C. Insurance Commissioner Causey said Friday. The charge is punishable by a $1,000 fine.

"It is tough to know if this is the largest ever, but it does seem like the largest rate evasion case anyone can recall," Day said.

The Observer reported last week that criminal investigators with the N.C. Department of Insurance accused the 70 taxi and limousine drivers of deliberately evading higher automobile insurance premiums in Charlotte. They are accused of doing so by listing their addresses as 8814 Silver Charm Lane in the Union County community.

The home at that address has 4,069 square feet of living space, Union County property tax records show.

The home is in the Providence Downs subdivision and has five bedrooms and two full and one half bathrooms. The house and its 0.9 acre have a total assessed value of $723,200.

The couple who own the property are not among those charged in the scheme. Their home phone number has been disconnected.

Joe Marusak: 704-358-5067, @jmarusak

___

(c)2017 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

Visit The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) at www.charlotteobserver.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.