The Attorney General announced that the owner of a towing company in Pennsylvania is accused of scamming customers out of approximately $300,000 for short-distance towing services.
Vincent Fannick, who is 56 years old, owns a tow truck company called Vince’s Towing in Pittsburgh. He would charge customers very high prices for towing without disclosing the costs on their invoices. Additionally, he would add extra fees called “accident service fees,” according to a news release from the Attorney General. The Attorney General says that the fees amounted to over $100,000 for the 27 victims.
“According to Attorney General Henry, this defendant is accused of taking advantage of consumers who were already in stressful situations. They allegedly did this by not disclosing all the costs when asking for signatures on invoices, and then charging higher prices for short tow jobs,” stated Attorney General Henry. “We will not accept predatory and dishonest business practices in our state. Business owners who harm consumers for their own gain will face consequences.”
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The investigation started in 2023 after a customer complained that their insurance company charged them over $11,000 for a tow that they didn’t ask for and was for a short distance. The release states that $4,250 of that amount was labeled as a “accident services” fee.
After that, the Attorney General states that law enforcement discovered 26 other people who were victims of the same scam between February 2023 and February 2024. Owners were charged anywhere from $9,460 to $13,105 for a single tow that was a short trip.
Fannick supposedly charged $9,805 for towing a distance of only one-third of a mile for one customer.
Fannick was accused of committing many serious crimes, including 27 counts of insurance fraud, theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, and securing execution of documents by deception.
Fannick was sent to prison and had to pay $25,000 as bail after he was arraigned. The preliminary hearing is set to take place on May 3. The Attorney General in Bucks County has announced that a tow company was charged with increasing prices in December.
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