The owner of a Bugatti Veyron that took a dip in a Texas swamp two years ago now finds himself in hot water over the matter.
Andy House is being accused of insurance fraud by his insurer, who claims that he deliberately drove his rare supercar into the swamp to collect a $2.2 million insurance payout. Unbeknownst to House, or his insurer at the time of the payout, was that a car enthusiast had captured the whole episode on film – it’s not everyday that one sees a Veyron on the road, with only around 300 of them in the world. It’s even rarer to see them take a dive into the saltwater Galveston Bay lagoon.
More after video
Needless to say that in the age of YouTube, the video became a viral phenomenon and has now been viewed over 2.6 million times. And by House’s insurer too, it seems, who has questioned the basis for House’s November 2009 insurance claim.
Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance has said House’s account of the incident does not sit well with the video evidence. House, a car dealer who hails from Lufkin, Texas, is said to have originally claimed that he had swerved to avoid a pelican on the road. However, as the video shows, there does not appear to be a pelican in site.
The Houston Chronicle reports that not only did House drive the car into the lagoon, his insurer also suggests that he then deliberately continued to run the engine for 15 minutes irreparably damaging its 1000 horsepower W16, quad-turbo engine.
Philadelphia Indemnity also alleges that the reason House may have deliberately ruined the vehicle is to claim the additional $1 million he insured the car for. The court documents say that House borrowed $1 million from a friend to buy the Veyron, and then insured it for an additional $1 million as a collector’s vehicle.
A date for the hearing has not yet been set, but regardless, car lovers around the world would have felt their hearts sink as quickly as the Veyron did at the sight of the video.
