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Police in Miami-Dade say two women turned a small accident clinic in Doral into a front for insurance fraud. Inside the office, it’s a scheme that siphons money from the system and ultimately lands on the bills of drivers who pay up for coverage in good faith.

Valentina Villa Del Gordo and Sonia Villa Mizarvera were arrested this month and charged with racketeering, filing false insurance claims, organized fraud, and grand theft.

Investigators say the pair worked at Calama Accident Care Center, NBC 6 shared. They allegedly used the clinic to bill an insurance company for physical therapy and other medical treatments that were never provided.

The case stems from a staged car crash in May involving two men who police believe were in on the insurance scam

Once the fake car accident was on record, investigators say Del Gordo and Mizarvera submitted fraudulent paperwork to the insurer. The conspirators even used blank and post-dated forms signed by the supposed “patients.”

On paper, it looked like a legitimate recovery process. In reality, no one had been treated.

This type of insurance scam is depressingly common in Florida’s no-fault auto insurance system

Under state law, drivers are required to carry Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage, which pays out medical costs regardless of who caused a crash.

That guarantee is meant to speed up treatment for legitimate injuries. But it’s also what makes the system a magnet for fraud.

Here’s how it typically works

Someone stages a low-speed collision or exaggerates injuries from a minor fender-bender. Clinics then bill insurers for pricey treatments that either never happened or were inflated far beyond reality. A sore arm suddenly becomes a chronic back injury. A quick check-up turns into months of fake therapy sessions.

The insurance company pays out, the scammers pocket the money, and the cost gets quietly shifted onto everyone else.

Experts say this cost-shifting is one reason Floridians pay some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country

The National Insurance Crime Bureau estimates that fraud adds between $400 and $700 to the average family’s annual insurance premiums nationwide.

“In fact, if insurance fraud were a business it would be a Fortune 500 company,” the group says. “Worse, innocent people are often injured or killed because of insurance fraud when fraudsters engage in schemes such as arson, auto repair scams, and staged accidents.”

For insurers, those losses aren’t just a hit to the bottom line

They lead directly to higher premiums for law-abiding drivers who did nothing wrong.

When companies lose money to fraud, they adjust by raising rates to balance out their “loss ratio.” That’s the gap between what they collect and what they pay out.

In short, schemes like the one police uncovered in Doral don’t just steal from corporations; they pick the pockets of every honest driver on the road.

Police say a third woman was initially charged in the case but was released on her own recognizance

People may think they can outsmart the system, but these scams almost always leave a (poorly thought out) paper trail.