NEWTOWN TWP., Pa. -- The owner of the Chalfont Collision Center submitted nearly 300 false insurance claims over several years to four insurance companies. He pocketed more than $426,000 in payouts.

John Paul Reis, 56, of Newtown Township, turned himself in on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, on charges of insurance fraud, deceptive business practices, forgery and theft by deception. All of the charges are third-degree felonies.

His bail is set at $150,000.

The charges filed against Reis are the result of a 4-year investigation by the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Insurance Fraud Unit, that began in September 2018 after receiving a referral from Erie Insurance’s Special Investigations Unit that alleged the Chalfont Collision Center, at 74 Park Avenue, was enhancing and or creating damage to customers’ vehicles to inflate insurance estimates.

The investigation found that Reis concocted an insurance fraud scheme where he would wipe a compound mixture onto the body of several vehicles and sometimes strike them with a hammer, making it appear as if the vehicles were involved in an accident, so he could bill insurance companies for more money.

“There is a tendency for some people to think of insurance fraud as a victimless crime,” District Attorney Matt Weintraub said. “That is, until the financial losses from those fraudulent claims are passed onto us in the form of higher insurance rates. I commend our investigators and prosecutors in our Insurance Fraud Unit for holding...

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