A hurricane man known for a popular YouTube channel called “Matt’s Off Road Recovery” has been charged with insurance fraud and accused of defrauding AAA through his firm, Winder Towing.
The arraignment for Matthew David Wetzel, 46, who was charged in late October with one count of making a false or fraudulent insurance claim, a second degree felony, is scheduled for next week. AAA is accused of paying more than $15,000 to Winder Towing in order to cover allegations made with known misrepresentations between January 2019 and August 2020.
According to charging papers, the Utah Insurance Fraud Division was contacted by a consumer with a complaint about AAA. After an investigation, the division determined that many of the claims made to AAA had significant errors regarding the claimed services or tow locations, according to court documents.
In one case, AAA covered three claims for a vehicle tow to Salt Lake City, totaling $2,800. The claim recipient told the Utah Insurance Fraud Division that his automobiles were not towed as he had stated in the claims. The individual agreed to receive construction supplies from Wetzel and the unnamed person submitted claims to AAA instead of paying Wetzel directly, according to the allegations.
According to the allegations, Wetzel accepted responsibility for fraudulent claims in a phone conversation, stating that he had supplied towing services to the individual on separate occasions and asking him to file an AAA claim rather of requesting payment or billing the customer at the time of service.
According to the complaint, Wetzel also allegedly stated that he would provide services without immediately billing the person, then later ask them to submit a claim.
“According to the investigator, Wetzel said he never completed a project that did not have a real service associated with it,” according to the report.
In another case, charging documents claim that Wetzel assisted with a tow for someone who did not have an AAA membership. According to the complaint, Wetzel advised the individual to join AAA, wait a few days before filing a claim, and so on. The paperwork claims Wetzel advised the customer to obtain an AAA membership, wait a few days before filing a claim, and so on. According to authorities in Apple Valley, California, charges were filed for a tow from Las Vegas to Washington County when the actual tow was from Apple Valley.
The third instance of fraud charged in the accusations was for an off-road tow of a Polaris RZR, which is not covered by AAA, according to the document. The owner of the RZR reportedly utilized his buddy’s AAA membership and stated that Wetzel’s business towed a truck rather than the RZR.
Video of the tow and Wetzel speaking to the owners was recorded, according on the paper, then posted to Wetzel’s YouTube channel, which features videos of off-road tows.
The channel has nearly 900,000 subscribers.
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