June 4, 2013 at 2:03 p.m.
UPDATED: Henricks charged with insurance fraud, identity theft
UPDATED: Henricks charged with insurance fraud, identity theft
John E. Henricks III, 42, owner of Custom Collision and Rick's Hodag Towing in Rhinelander, is facing four different felony charges. He made his initial appearance in Oneida County Circuit Court Wednesday morning where Judge Michael Bloom set a $2,500 cash bond.
Conditions of the bond include turning over his passport if he holds one, not leaving the state without the court's permission, and filing detailed written summaries with the court about any future insurance claims both personal and business-related. Henricks is scheduled for a preliminary hearing July 15.
According to the criminal complaint, the charges Henricks is facing are related to three insurance claims made in 2007 that resulted in Henricks receiving nearly $96,000 from insurance companies. Investigators are alleging the claims were fraudulent based on information received from two former employees of Custom Collision.
According to one employee, Henricks loaned him $3,000 for a down payment on a new truck. The employee told investigators that Henricks told him to get insurance for the truck, then file a claim for a car vs. deer accident. The employee said he had not hit a deer nor was there any damage to the truck.
The complaint states Custom Collision is a "preferred provider" for several insurance companies and therefore a company representative does not always come to the business to inspect vehicles after an accident. According to the complaint, that was the case with the allegedly fraudulent car vs. deer accident claim. Custom Collision received nearly $8,000 from the insurance company for the claim.
Investigators also talked to the employee about another claim made on his insurance policy in 2007. The claim was that the employee backed over a custom-made motorcycle owned by Henricks. Custom Collision provided an estimate of nearly $25,000 to fix the motorcycle, and eventually received a check for that same amount from the insurance company. The employee said he never hit the motorcycle and did not know anything about that particular claim.
According to the complaint, that insurance claim was originally called in by a second employee investigators talked to. That employee said she filed the claim but could not remember details about it. The phone number she provided when making the claim was one of several different ones Henricks had.
According to the complaint, the woman told investigators Henricks changed his phone numbers regularly because of the amount of fraudulent claims he had been making.
The woman also talked to investigators about an incident where she was offered $1,500 by Henricks to back into the motorcycle because he "no longer wanted it." She said she filed the claim with her insurance company and Henricks eventually received $62,999 for the damage to the motorcycle. The woman said the photos of the damage were also used in the other motorcycle claim.
The information from the two former employees was used to apply for the search warrant that law enforcement officials executed at Henricks' business Monday morning.
The formal charges against Henricks are three felony counts of making a fraudulent insurance claim greater than $2,500 and one felony count of financial gain from identity theft. The maximum penalty for convictions on all four counts is 16 1/2 years in prison.
Kyle Rogers may be reached at [email protected].
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