Commercial Auto

Commercial Auto

Every business had a commercial auto liability exposure regardless of whether or not that business owns a vehicle. The owner is driving his or her personal car to deposit money in the bank. The receptionist is using a personal vehicle to pick up lunch. The clerk hops in a car to go pick up toner for the copier. An accident during any of these trips could lead to a commercial auto liability exposure if the business they were working for at the time of the accident is named in the lawsuit. How do you protect the business?

Of course, if a registered vehicle (private passenger, van, pickup, truck, or trailer) is titled under a business name, a separate commercial auto policy is required. This policy should also contain hired and non-owned auto liability coverage. This will protect the business by defending the entity in the situations listed above and triggering the auto liability coverage limits if the business is found liable within any settlement. You do not have to buy a separate commercial auto policy if your business doesn’t own any vehicles as this hired and non-owned coverage can be added by endorsement to your general liability or business owner’s policy.

You can select coverage for physical damages to the vehicles you own as well as hired or rented autos. The commercial auto policy can also provide medical coverage to named individuals listed on the policy that need this coverage. For example, if an owner of a company buys all of his family vehicles under his corporate name, the wife and possibly children would need to be covered for medical personal injury protection (PIP) coverage regardless of if they are injured as a driver, passenger, or pedestrian. Similar coverage for loss of income due to an auto accident injury and “drive other car” DOC liability can be provided to any named individuals by paying a separate premium within the commercial auto policy.

 Remember that if an employee were injured in an auto accident during the course of their employment, your worker’s compensation coverage and not the commercial auto policy would need to handle the medical bills and related benefits to that employee. Let the experienced professionals at Hanson & Ryan take the confusion away and make sure all of your auto liability, physical damage, and medical gaps are provided for if your business suffers an automobile accident.

Source:http://www.hansonryan.com/services/business/commercial_auto/

Auto shop owner indicted

Auto shop owner indicted

By Nick Buglione

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota charged 57-year-old East Islip resident Dean Poupis, owner of the Masters Auto Collision shops on Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow and Merrick Road in Seaford as well as Cavalier Auto Body in Huntington Station, with the top racketeering count of enterprise corruption on Monday, Dec. 16.

Also charged with the same count were Douglas Sessa, 41, manager of the East Meadow shop, Angelo Cianfarano, 47, co-owner of Cavalier, and Harry Zolotas, 26, described by insurance crime investigators as quality-control manager of Cavalier.

"Enterprise corruption is the state version of the racketeering statute that federal prosecutors use," said Bob Clifford, Spota's spokesman. "Racketeering is a planned, organized attempt to acquire funds or property by illegal means."

According to Clifford, Poupis and his associates had made hundreds of thousands of dollars in an insurance scam that allegedly involved billing insurance companies for unneeded parts and "juicing" claims.

"Juicing a claim is when you bring in a Corvette that has $4,000 in damage, and the auto body shop takes a sledgehammer to it and makes it $10,000 in damage and takes photos of it," Clifford said. "Some of these auto fraud rings also take undamaged parts off a vehicle, put on damaged parts just for the photos that go to the insurance companies, and put back on the undamaged parts."

Poupis, Sessa, Cianfarano and Zolotas all pleaded not guilty to the charges. At press time, none could be reached for comment. If convicted of enterprise corruption, they face 12 1/2 to 25 years in prison.

Thirteen insurance appraisers were also indicted for allegedly providing higher damage estimates for cars they knew shop workers had intentionally damaged.

 Auto shop owner indicted

"These arrests come as part of an aggressive new initiative by New York state to seize the assets of criminals engaging in insurance fraud," said Gregory Serio, superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department, which worked closely with Spota's Insurance Crime Unit, "sending a clear message that criminals will not be permitted to profit off the backs of hard-working families."

Formed at the beginning of the year, the Insurance Crime Unit had been eyeing Poupis's businesses since last summer.

A search of his Cavalier Auto Body shop in July revealed $117,000 in cash in a garage floor safe. Following that investigation, Poupis, Cianfarano and Paul Mertz, 47-year-old general manager of the shop, were arrested for third-degree insurance fraud. Poupis posted bail after the arrest.

Knowing he had two other shops in Nassau, the Insurance Crime Unit then launched an investigation of those locations, Clifford said.

Searches were done at both sites, he added, and financial records and other pieces of evidence were seized. Clifford would not say exactly what was taken or if any cash was found at the East Meadow shop.

"If people were customers of either Masters location and they think there was something amiss, they should call the Suffolk County Insurance Crimes Unit," Clifford said. The unit can be reached weekdays at (631) 853-5510.

This is not the first time Poupis and his shops have made headlines. In June 2001, the Herald reported that East Meadow residents living near Masters Auto Collision had been miffed for years because the shop was parking wrecked cars waiting to be serviced on residential streets.

They were also concerned about Poupis's proposal to turn a small piece of property behind Masters into a parking lot to house the damaged vehicles. The Town of Hempstead later denied that request.

Auto shop owner indicted

Patricia Fonte-Daniels, who with her sister owns a house on nearby Fourth Street, said the shop is still an eyesore. "When I go to visit during the day, it's business as usual," said Fonte-Daniels, who no longer lives in the East Meadow house but visits her sister there at least twice a week. "He still has his wrecked cars parked on the street."