HAMILTON - Hamilton police have charged three men following a seven-month investigation into auto body shops that were allegedly defrauding insurance companies.
Police say the body shops would send people to the scenes of accidents to tell the drivers that their vehicles were unsafe to drive.
They would then offer to take the vehicle into the body shop where insurance officials would find more damage than had originally been reported at the scene.
Police say this was done to inflate the costs of the claims in order to defraud the insurance companies.
Officers searched Stoney Creek Collision Centre in Stoney Creek and Southwestern Collision Centre on Dundurn Street in Hamilton today.
A 48-year-old man, a 39-year-old man and a 67-year-old man were arrested and charged with fraud over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit fraud.
They will next appear in court on Sept. 26.
Police did not release their names.
