Car Torcher Pleads Guilty

Posted & filed under Insurance Fraud, insurance news.

Desperate times apparently really do call for desperate measures. A New Jersey resident recently pleaded guilty to torching his aunt’s car so that she could collect insurance money. Even better, he would also make money from the deal.

Kristopher Wynder, a resident of Vineland, confesed that in 2008 he set fire to his aunt’s 2002 Ford Explorer in a remote part of the city. His aunt Cheryl Wynder, he said, had agreed to give him $500 of the insurance proceeds.

Cheryl Wynder had already pleaded guilty to charges of insurance fraud as a result of the incident, and will be paying roughly $14,000 in restitution and fines.

Kristopher, on the other hand, has pleaded guilty to arson. His sentencing won’t happen until April, 2011, but the current recommendation is a five-year state prison sentence.