Thursday, October 1, 2026
The owner of a local auto body shop was acquitted on June 22 of all insurance fraud charges stemming from an arrest in September 2010.
Lorraine Christie-Pilitz, the owner of Autotech Collision on 132 South Long Beach Road in Rockville Centre, was found not guilty of three counts of insurance fraud and one count of falsifying business records. Autotech, which was also charged, was found not guilty of falsifying business records.
A judge had earlier dismissed a second charge against Autotech, criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Christie-Pilitz, 54, of Merrick, had been arrested on Sept. 15, 2010 by investigators from the Nassau County District Attorney’s office and had faced up to three years in prison had she been convicted.
Had Autotech been found guilty of its charges, it would have faced a fine of up to $10,000.
District Attorney Kathleen Rice’s office had argued that the defendant was driving a 2007 Chrysler PT Cruiser owned by her body shop in September 2009 when she was rear-ended. The district attorney said that although the accident was reportedly not serious, Christie-Pilitz submitted a claim to Geico, the company that insured the other driver, allegedly claiming that her car was totaled. Geico representatives attempted to see the car to assess damage, but were unable to for six weeks, by which time the car had been dismantled and was in pieces.
Geico agreed to pay the full cost for the damages and asked Christie-Pilitz for proof of the vehicle’s value, a bill of sale that would prove her ownership of the car and a list of expenses related to its storage and repair.
According to Rice, Christie-Pilitz provided Geico with a hand-written list of expenses and bill of sale, which the DA argued was fraudulent. The bill of sale reportedly indicated that she paid Autotech $12,491 for the vehicle and Rice also said that Chrisite-Pilitz had offered a fraudulent MV-50 (a Department of Motor Vehicles form used to transfer ownership of any vehicle owned or controlled by a dealer).
According to a statement released by Christie-Pilitz's attorney, Oscar Michelen, the DA’s key witness, a GEICO claims supervisor, testified that in two separate phone calls, Christie-Pilitz had stated that she had paid applicable NY sales tax when she registered her car from her company’s name to her name and that she was seeking reimbursement from GEICO for that money, around $990.
Christie-Pilitz produced a tape recording of both conversations that showed that she had not made such an attempt and stated that she had not yet registered the vehicle in her name, so that sales tax would not apply.
“It’s a total vindication for me and my company,” Christie-Pilitz said after the verdict. “I have had to fight GEICO and other insurers as well several incorporated villages for years just to let me run my business. This time, though they nearly put me out of business with these charges, which should have never been brought in the first place. I’m so thankful that this jury understood what was going on and threw the whole case out.”
Though Christie-Pilitz was acquitted of all charges relating to the September 2010 arrest, she still faces pending charges in connection with an arrest on April 27, 2010.
In that case she is charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument after she allegedly parked a 2003 Honda Element in the lot of the Garden City DMV office, and a motor vehicles inspector noticed the vehicle and recognized forged plates, police said.
"Though I am not [Christie-Pilitz’s] lawyer on that case,” Michelen said, “I think in light of what happened here, the DA office should dismiss those charges as well.”
