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ST. GEORGE — A Hurricane man known for a popular YouTube channel called "Matt's Off Road Recovery" has been charged with insurance fraud and accused of fraudulently collecting money from AAA through his company, Winder Towing.
An arraignment is scheduled next week for Matthew David Wetzel, 46, who was charged in late October with one count of a false or fraudulent insurance claim, a second degree felony. The charges allege that AAA paid more than $15,000 to Winder Towing to cover claims with known misrepresentations for claims filed between January 2019 and August 2020.
The Utah Insurance Fraud Division received a complaint, and after an investigation it determined that many of the claims filed to AAA had material misrepresentations about the claimed services or towing locations, according to charging documents.
In one instance AAA covered three claims, totaling $2,800, for a vehicle tow to Salt Lake City, but the individual who submitted the claims admitted to the Utah Insurance Fraud Division that his vehicles were not towed, according to charging documents. Wetzel agreed to deliver construction material to the individual and the unnamed individual submitted claims to AAA instead of paying Wetzel directly, the charges state.
The investigator said Wetzel took responsibility for the false claims in a phone call, and said that in this instance he had provided towing services to the individual at separate times and Wetzel asked him to file a...
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