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Chubb Sets Insurance Precedent: Will Pay for Preand Post-Repair Scans on “Modern” Vehicles
“Chubb has decided that we are going to allow for pre and post scans on Body shops across the country watched all “modern” autos (1990 and Newer). with interest as the world’s Your first line on the estimate largest publically-traded propshould read pre-scan at 1.0 erty and casualty insurer anhour of body rate and the last nounced it would pay for preline on the estimate should read post-scan at 1.0 hours of and post-repair scans on vehibody rate. If you find that the cles 1990 and newer. cost of doing the scan is going In a move that many reto be higher, then provide the pairers found a welcome surMatthew actual scan report and the inprise, including the owner of McDonnell, voice and we will reimburse Big Sky Collision Center, owner of Big Sky Matthew McDonnell, Chubb accordingly on the SUPPLECollision Center sent the following email to MENT. body shops in December: See Chubb, Page 13 by Stacey Phillips
FinishMaster Acquires D’Angelos Automotive Paint and its 14 Locations
FOCUS Investment Banking, an advisory and intermediary firm in the automotive services sector, has announced that D’Angelos Automotive and Industrial Coatings and its 14 locations have been acquired by FinishMaster, Inc, a subsidiary of Uni-Select, Inc. FinishMaster is the largest national independent distributor of automotive paints, coatings and related accessories in the United States. D’Angelos was represented by FO-
CUS Automotive Group in its sixth multi-location paint distributor transaction in the last 18 months. David Roberts, Managing Director at FOCUS commented, “Bob and Art D’Angelo built one of the largest paint distributors in the US over the last 45 years by successfully adapting to changes in the distribution inSee Finishmaster, Page 14
VOL. 35 ISSUE 3 MARCH 2017
DA and Insurance Commissioner Announce Bust of Insurance Fraud Ring in San Diego County The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office and California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones recently announced a major auto insurance fraud ring takedown which was operating in San Diego County. Nine defendants have been charged with 34 felony crimes including filing fraudulent auto insurance claims. Six defendants were arrested on January 31, and police are searching for one more. Two people received notices that they have been charged and must appear in court. “When cheaters scam insurance companies, law abiding citizens end up footing the bill,” District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said. “Our insurance fraud team did an excellent job collaborating with the California Department of Insurance and Highway Patrol to dismantle this crime ring.” Operation Persistent was a two-
year investigation that uncovered a web of fraudsters who victimized insurance companies over several years. The ring used various schemes to file 34 false insurance claims for auto property damage. The schemes included staged collisions, nonexistent collisions, using already damaged vehicles, and phony vehicle thefts. The crimes were discovered thanks to the diligent efforts of the San Diego Automobile Insurance Fraud Task Force. The joint task force is dedicated to investigating all forms of auto insurance fraud and is supervised by the California Department of Insurance. It is made up of law enforcement officers from the Department of Insurance, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, and California Highway Patrol. The National Insurance Crime Bureau also provides support to the task force.
by John Yoswick
sewn a resistor into the wiring harness to cheat the airbag light from coming on.” Chuck Olsen of AirPro Diagnostics, another remote scanning service provider, said preand post-scanning removes liability issues for collision repairers and insurers. “I know the condition of the vehicle Chuck Olsen when it came in, and I know the condition of the vehicle when it went out, so [as the shop] it’s not going to be my fault,” Olsen said. CIC attendee Gary Wano, an Oklahoma shop owner, posed a realworld analogy for a question often discussed in the industry: Does an insurer owe for a scan if the scan reveals noth-
See Insurance Fraud Ring, Page 18
CIC Panel Discusses Scanning, Need For Following OEM Repair Procedures The value of pre-scanning collisiondamaged vehicles was reiterated a number of times by panelists at the recent Collision Industry Conference (CIC) held this January in Palm Springs, CA. Jake Rodenroth of Collision Diagnostic Services (maker of the asTech remote scanning system), who said his company did just over 6,000 vehicles scans in December, cited an example of a vehicle problem found in a prescan that the shop—and potentially the vehicle owner—would otherwise not have known about. The scan showed one fault code, related to lost communication with the airbag control module, triggering the shop to check the instrument cluster. “What we found was pretty alarming,” Rodenroth said. “We found this had been a [used] car, and someone had
See CIC Panel, Page 36
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