December 2, 2008
Raymond DeGraca, 56, entered a guilty plea in Suffolk Superior Court Tuesday for reporting a false car accident with a fake identity and lying under oath, among other charges. In October 2002, DeGraca registered his car using a Rhode Island driver's license with his own picture but using his brother's information. The following year, he falsely claimed to his insurer, the Amica Mutual Insurance Company, that his vehicle was hit by another driver. The driver he claimed hit him later told his own insurance company, Liberty Mutual Insurance, that the crash never happened, but by that time DeGraca had already filed personal injury claims. Liberty Mutual's investigators soon discovered DeGraca's true identity, and denied the claim. In August this year, DeGraca was indicted for the identity theft, as well as perjury and giving a false name to police officers on two separate occasions in West Roxbury and Dorchester District courts in 2004 and 2005. DeGraca began serving a three-year sentence in state prison Tuesday, and will serve two years probation afterwards.