As auto insurance in New York has been subjected to massive fraudulent activities, the state Senate had just recently come up with three major legislations intended to effectively fight scams.

These anti-fraud measures include increasing the penalties for those people who will participate in NY auto insurance crimes, and giving more leeway to insurers to come with their own terms in preventing fraudsters from further victimizing the insurance industry.

The three bills were all approve on May 8 and has now been forwarded to the state Assembly.

Senate Bill 3547 which is sponsored by Senator James Seward proposes that staging an auto accident with an intention to fraud the industry shall be considered as a Class D felony. The legislation will institute a maximum sentence of 25 years to people who have been involved in stage auto accidents that had resulted to injuries or death. Aside from the fact that staged accidents poses a serious risk to the public, such fraudulent activity has also been one of the top culprit in the increasing NY auto insurance rates.

The other bill, S199A which is sponsored by Senator Martin Golden proposes that insurers shall be allow in their discretion to cancel auto policies of those people who have committed fraud. Criminals who stage accidents often buy NY auto insurance policies using stolen credit cards or bad checks. If this bill will be approved, insurers can retroactively cancel their policies.

S3033 on the other hand is a bill sponsored by Senator Dean Skelos that seeks to make it illegal to act as a “runner” to fraudulent activities. This bill will make such participation either as a Class A Misdemeanor, Class D felony or Class E. If approved, those people who acted as runners can face prison term of up to seven years.

NY auto insurance being a no-fault system has become of the favorite target of fraudulent activities in the US.