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ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Jeremy Dewitte may have retired his Metro State motorcycle a year ago, but the law isn’t done chasing down the accused criminal.
Investigators filed nearly a dozen indictments against Dewitte on Friday, accusing her of a years-long effort to use her funeral home business to commit fraud. insurance company.
The first round of allegations related to the registration of cars and motorcycles of Dewitte’s company. According to an affidavit, Dewitte registered several of his Metro-State vehicles with multiple insurance companies under his wife’s name and listed them as personal vehicles, in an attempt to avoid from high charges imposed on vehicles used for business.
Dewitte’s wife told the police that she was not involved in the insurance claims process for any of their vehicles.
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“If the truth about the bands, lights and signs on the cars had been revealed, the insurance would not have been issued,” said an employee of one of the insurance company to the police.
The affidavit says Dewitte’s actions represent a common insurance fraud scheme.
Investigators added that while the vehicles were registered with the Metro State, Dewitte failed to update his criminal registration in family system within 48 hours required to include all vehicles he owned.
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Same picture, different distractions
At the same time, Dewitte was under investigation for the registration of his vehicles, the investigators gathered evidence that he was deceiving more companies and increasing damages from accidents.
According to the affidavit, Dewitte provided photos and invoices to an insurance company for an accident that occurred in Orlando in May 2020.
Dewitte told troopers on the scene that his employee was driving the car at the time, but he gave a different story to the insurance company. In a recorded statement, Dewitte made statements indicating that he was driving the vehicle, investigators said.
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The report shows that Dewitte gave the insurance company several photos of the “damage” that the metadata showed were taken in 2017 and 2019, up to three years before the accident. .
Dewitte also submitted a bill for repair work to replace his car’s headlights that investigators said matched a bill he submitted in another fraudulent claim he made for an accident in Polk County in 2018. Although the date was removed from the new application, the bill number is the same, a police officer wrote.
It is said that their charges for the 2018 incident are still pending at the Attorney General’s office. A representative of the office declined to comment on the matter on Friday.
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For the accident in May 2020, investigators say, Dewitte received a total of $9,490 from the insurance company, including a $2,000 check for injuries he caused even though he was not the driver of the vehicle. the car.
Five months later, in October 2020, investigators said Dewitte pulled the same thing with a different insurance company, and provided some of the same photos and bills he used after the crash. May. Included in the bill were motorcycle parts, which the sheriff said made no sense because Dewitte was driving a Chevy Tahoe.
After the case was settled for $10,000, investigators interviewed the other driver and Dewitte’s passenger. Both said Dewitte intentionally caused the accident by speeding behind another car.
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“The defendant told him that he intentionally collided with another car while trying to go around the defendant’s car in a turning lane to cause this accident so that he could get a money from an insurance,” said the passenger to the investigators.
Despite pleading with the judge for leniency Friday afternoon, Dewitte was again denied bond. He will be kept in jail pending the date set by the court, as well as the government’s attorneys trying to convict him of his failure to comply with the terms. his probation.
No attorney for Dewitte was listed on the Orange County website.
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