Driver’s Deadly Hit-and-Run Insurance Scam Fails in Court

An accident that occurred in Gunsan, Jeonbuk, in 2020
Explained as an accident caused by not paying enough attention to the road ahead

A man in his 40s has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for deliberately hitting an elderly pedestrian with his car, resulting in the victim’s death, and subsequently collecting a large sum of insurance money.

 

According to the legal community, on the 23rd, the Supreme Court’s Second Division (Chief Justice Lee Dong-won) confirmed the original sentence of 20 years in prison for Mr. Kim, who was charged with murder and violation of the Insurance Fraud Prevention Act, on the 27th of last month.

Mr. Kim was charged with killing a woman in her 70s by hitting her with his car at 26 miles per hour (41km/h) on a road in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, on September 11, 2020. He received approximately $147,000 for medical expenses, criminal settlement money, and attorney fees from the insurance company due to this accident.

The prosecution believed that Mr. Kim deliberately caused the accident to receive insurance money due to his financial difficulties.

He had also caused a traffic accident intentionally in May of the same year. He collected about $1,140 in insurance money, and it was found that he had enrolled in multiple insurance products.

In the trial, Mr. Kim denied the charges, claiming that the accident occurred because he couldn’t see well in front of him.

However, the court of first instance acknowledged Mr. Kim’s intent to kill the victim based on evidence that he continued to accelerate right before the accident, did not attempt to stop the car, and the direction the car veered towards the direction the victim was walking.

The court criticized, “The defendant chose an elderly victim who was expected to easily agree with the family due to the short life expectancy, and was likely to cause a serious accident due to his greed to receive a large amount of insurance money. This undermines the general trust in insurance and has a high potential to cause moral decay.”

Mr. Kim appealed the decision, but the result did not change. The Supreme Court also dismissed Mr. Kim’s appeal, stating, “There is no misunderstanding of the law regarding the indirect intent of murder in the original judgment.”