DA: 46 charged in slip-and-fall scam ring

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

District Attorney Seth Williams announced charges Wednesday against 46 people in what prosecutors say was a seven-year scheme that used staged slip-and-fall accidents to defraud 21 insurance companies out of nearly $400,000.

Attorney Andrew H. Gaber, 52, was accused of running the operation out of his Center City law office, where he was the sole practitioner.

Gaber, of Delaware County, was scheduled to be arrested Wednesday but committed suicide last week after an initial court proceeding in which some of his bank accounts were frozen, prosecutors said.

The lawyer allegedly trained “runners” to recognize what constituted a good personal-injury claim. Prosecutors said the group carefully chose sidewalks with not-too-obvious defects in well-insured neighborhoods to stage the accidents.

One sad story.