Fires for the Insurance

A man who ran a restaurant with partners was accused of hiring a professional arsonist to burn it down, then submitting false income statements to settle the insurance claim. A year later the same arsonist burned a duplex owned by a partnership that included the man's son; the son signed false proof-of-loss forms, and the insurer's adjuster mailed papers to headquarters, some after the claim had been paid. Prosecutors said father, son and a partner also planned to burn a flower shop until the arsonist was arrested, and that the son later lied to a grand jury about the arsonist. Both were charged. The defence argued the restaurant fire, involving only the father, was wrongly tried together with the other counts, and that mailings after payment could not support mail fraud.