N.Y. Man's Accident Story Doesn't Pan Out

A Tompkins County, New York man who collected an $1,188 insurance payment for damage to his car reportedly caused by hitting a deer was arrested for insurance fraud when authorities charged the damage actually occurred when he struck a pedestrian and a house in Syracuse.

Robert E. Jones, 49, of Freeville, was arrested by Investigator Mark Howard of the New York State Insurance Department’s Frauds Bureau, assisted by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department.

Howard said Progressive Insurance Company paid Jones for damage to the passenger side of his car after he filed an accident report claiming he struck a deer on March 30. Progressive asked the Insurance Department to investigate after the company received a second accident report for the same car. Filed by the Syracuse Police Department, the second report identified Jones as the driver in a March 29 accident involving a pedestrian.

Police said the pedestrian had been a passenger in Jones’s car and was injured after she got out of the vehicle and Jones tried to drive away, striking her and the house. The woman was treated for an ankle injury. Jones was charged with assault and leaving the scene of the accident.

If he is convicted of the separate charge of insurance fraud, Jones could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.