China driver held after bumper payout from 334 crashes

Pedestrians walk in front of a fashion store as a luxury sports car is parked nearby in Chengdu, the capital of China's southwestern province of Sichuan on November 23, 2011. A man who crashed a car on average every three days for almost three years in a Chinese insurance scam has been arrested, media reported Friday. (AFP/File)

BEIJING (AFP) – A man who crashed a car on average every three days for almost three years in a Chinese insurance scam has been arrested, media reported Friday.

The 42-year-old made 334 insurance claims in the southern city of Shenzhen between 2010 and May this year, local television said.

He drove up behind other cars during rush hour, bumping into them slowly to avoid being injured, police told Shenzhen TV.

He then bribed mechanics to overestimate the damage and claimed for the inflated invoices, which totalled 357,000 yuan ($58,000), the report said.

Motor vehicle insurance fraud is thought to be widespread in China.

Last year police broke up a 13 million yuan ($2 million) insurance scam involving 95 suspects who were said to have faked car accidents, state media said.

The China News Service website said the Shenzhen driver covered his vehicles with stickers to hide previous damage.