Local News in Brief : Lawyer Held in Fraud Scheme Using Staged Auto Accidents

A Beverly Hills lawyer was arrested Wednesday in connection with what police said was an insurance fraud ring responsible for staging 54 traffic accidents in Los Angeles and Orange counties over the last 10 years.

The arrest of Michael T. Bota, 61, at his home in Sherman Oaks culminated a yearlong investigation by six law-enforcement agencies into a ring they say collected more than $425,000 from insurance companies and accident victims by forcing unwary drivers into rear-end collisions.

As many as 44 others, including doctors, lawyers and an alleged ringleader, who is still at large, may have filed more than $920,000 in bodily injury claims with insurance companies, Anaheim Police Officer Allen Eichorn said.

“This organization has been operating for approximately 10 years in the Los Angeles County area, with a recent increase in staged collisions occurring in the Orange County area,” Anaheim police said in announcing the arrest.

Typically, the ring preyed on single drivers of late-model cars, most often on busy streets where traffic was moving at 30 m.p.h. to 35 m.p.h., police said. An older car, usually with three or four occupants, would drive in front of the target car, then stop abruptly.

The occupants of the car would produce fictitious drivers licenses and, generally, would not claim to be injured. Later, in cooperation with attorneys and doctors working with the ring, they would file claims with insurance companies for alleged injuries.

Anaheim police said they learned of the extent of the ring’s operations when they obtained search warrants for Bota’s Beverly Hills law offices, a medical office in Los Angeles and the Long Beach home of the alleged head of the ring, identified as Larry Hill.

Bota is charged with 32 counts of insurance fraud and grand theft. He was being held at the Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.