Hammond woman gets 30 months for faking automobile crashes
BY Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com September 5, 2012 11:30PM
Updated: October 7, 2012 8:08AM
A Hammond woman will serve 30 months in prison after she admitted to taking part in an automobile insurance fraud ring that staged crashes, including one that included her child.
Shinita Mosley, also known as Shinita Smith, received the sentence Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Hammond after pleading guilty to nine counts of dealing with fraud and one count of making false statements.
Mosley was charged a year ago with working with other people between 2007 to 2009 to create fake accidents in order to collect insurance payouts. She claimed she and children who were not her own had been hijacked, which never happened, according to court records.
A sentencing memorandum filed by federal attorneys says she also drove seven children, including her own, from Illinois to Indiana to take part in a staged accident.
The memorandum says not only was her child in one of the vehicles during the staged crash, but he was not wearing a seat belt and so was thrown into the dashboard.
“It is improbable to believe that a collision, staged or otherwise, might not result in some type of injury to those in the vehicles, especially to a minor child who is not properly secured within the vehicle,” the memorandum says.
Mosley was also charged with lying on a 2006-07 student loan aid application because she did not reveal that she had received money from an Illinois charity to help pay for child care.
