Seven times last summer, the Fort Myers Chiropractic Center billed Direct General insurance for treating William Perez-Leon's injuries from a car accident.
Except there was no accident. There were no injuries, no massages, no ultrasounds -- none of the treatments for which the insurance company was billed.
All the while, Perez-Leon was in jail for a DUI.
Three employees of the chiropractic center have been arrested.
Investigators call it a textbook, if brazen, example of fraud involving PIP, or Personal Injury Protection insurance.
``We were only able to catch this one so red-handed because the guy's in jail,'' said Capt. Steve Smith, head of the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud's south region.
South Florida is No. 2 in the nation in PIP fraud, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a nonprofit that works with insurance companies to investigate fraud. In a way, that's a sign of progress. The region used to No. 1, until recently ceding the top spot to Tampa Bay.
Insurers and fraud investigators hope the Legislature will tackle PIP this year -- as it has before -- and put in place measures that finally help reduce the problem. Some have suggested tighter regulation of certain types of clinics and tougher penalties for law-breakers, although it is already a second-degree felony to stage an accident for insurance purposes.