Revere car insurance scammers arraigned

REVERE – Authorities alleged in Suffolk Superior Court Tuesday a Revere man was a ringleader in a scam to stage car accidents in order to collect insurance money.Fred Battista, 46, of Revere and David Frolizzi, 47, of Hudson, N.H. were among six people who pled innocent to various charges of insurance fraud. The men work at Winthrop Collision Center, also known as Collision Headquarters and allegedly got four people to stage car accidents in order to collect insurance money once they made repairs between May 2006 and June 2007.Frolizzi and Battista allegedly paid Battista’s stepmother, Laura Battista, 58, of Winthrop, William Penta, 44, of Revere, Janet Vaccari, 46, of Reading and Vaccari’s daughter, Deana Pistone, 25, of Wakefield to cause the accidents.Authorities say Vaccari and Penta staged two separate minor accidents with Laura Battista. They all collected insurance money as well as the mechanics, Fred Battista and Frolizzi, authorities said.In one of the incidents, Pistone allegedly admitted that she purposely caused vandalism to her car after Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation began investigating her claim. She said she caused the vandalism because Frolizzi allegedly convinced her to make a false claim, authorities said.Clerk Magistrate Robin Vaughan released all six suspects from court on personal recognizance and ordered them back to court June 9 for a pre-trial conference, according to Harry Pierre, spokesman at the Attorney General’s Office.