Vehicle Arson Fraud Common in Houston

HOUSTON - Houston comes in on top; the city is first when it comes to people who burn cars to cash in on insurance payouts and also first when it comes to implementing a new way of cracking down on the crime.

Captain Dustin Deutsch, with the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office, says investigators have become so tired of arson-related insurance fraud cases that they started making house calls.

"Statistics recently released by the NICB (National Insurance Crime Bureau) show Houston number one in the nation," said Deutsch.

"We run across attorneys, firefighters, police officers, nurses, doctors. A lot of individuals see it as a quick solution to a problem that's been stacking up for years, financial problem."

Deutsch introduced FOX 26 to one such car owner, a man who did not wish to share his name with FOX because he is a successful business owner. Six years earlier, Deutsch arrested the business owner and his wife for arson. They confessed to setting fire to her Ford Mustang in hopes of collecting insurance money and were under arrest less than six hours after setting the fire.

The quick response was somewhat of a blessing. Since the business owner and his wife did not have time to report their car stolen or file an insurance report, investigators could only charge them with one count of felony arson. That old Mustang, worth almost $10,000 before the fire, ended up costing them $40,000 in court costs, attorney fees and fines.

Deutsch says that while approximately 85 percent of all vehicle fires in Harris County in 2008 were later found to be arson, approximately 25 percent of them ended with an arrest.

At an insurance salvage yard in the northeast part of the county, Deutsch pointed to a charred, late model Lincoln Navigator.

"One way or another, you are paying for it," said Deutsch. "For example, this $45,000 Navigator, you live in Harris County, you pay insurance premiums, you're paying for this vehicle. There's no magic re-insurance program. This is coming out of your rates, your premiums. Obviously, insurance premiums are for valid or realistic losses, not for owner-related or owner involved insurance losses, so something like this is coming out of your back pocket."

In the next few months, Deutsch says investigators from several local, state and federal agencies will team up and form a specialized task force aimed at cracking down on these arson cases.