Vic man avoids jail over insurance rort

When a Victorian insurance assessor was asked to become part of a sophisticated racket scamming car insurers, he felt he couldn't refuse.

On Wednesday, Vincent Ferella avoided jail over the rort, which involved a criminal network of businesses that cheated car insurance companies out of more than $68,000 using false claims during 2014-15

County Court judge Gregory Lyon said while the offending was serious, the 59-year-old played a small but integral role.

When two principal co-offenders, both panel beaters, had asked him to take part in the racket, he was reluctant to refuse because of their "heavy-handed" way of handling conflict, the court was told.

Ferella produced false car insurance assessment reports to defraud insurance companies, including RACV, QBE Insurance and Suncorp, receiving a standard fee for his work.

The judge said there was no evidence Ferella profited from the scam.

More than $68,000 was dishonestly obtained from insurers and attempts were made to obtain a further $184,000.

After his arrest, Ferella told police he was relieved to have been caught.

Judge Lyon noted that since then, he had rescued three men when their tinny overturned and, in a separate incident, attended to a neighbour injured in a stabbing.

He noted his good character and the negative effect on his business following publicity about his crimes.

Judge Lyon ordered him to undertake a 15-month community corrections order with 100 hours of unpaid work, taking into account his clean record, guilty plea and willingness to co-operate with police.

The Dromana man pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining property by deception and four counts of attempting to obtain property by deception.