A drunk driver who claimed his deceased friend was driving when his car hit a moving train and a man behind a massive auto insurance fraud scheme are among this year’s worst insurance fraud offenders.

Manitoba Public Insurance released its list of top five insurance frauds of 2013 on Friday.

Top spot goes to a man who was severely injured when the vehicle he was in hit a moving train. Another man who was in the vehicle died in the crash.

The survivor had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit. He told MPI he was a passenger and his deceased friend was the driver, however, a camera on the train clearly showed he was behind the wheel at the time of the accident.

Many of the man’s Personal Injury Protection Plan benefits were denied, saving MPI $150,000.

Second place goes to two men who hatched a plan to crash their cars into each other and claim it was an accident. The two men told MPI they didn’t know each other, but an investigation revealed the two men were business partners. They were fined $2,000 and $1,700 respectively.

In third place, a Winkler man claimed his truck was stolen. It was later found under a bridge with a hose in the window, filling the inside with water.

MPI’s investigation showed the truck had an immobilizer which had not been defeated.

The fourth-place winner is a man who MPI describes as a ‘kingpin’ who was the subject of a massive auto-insurance fraud investigation called Project Rollback. Members of a criminal organization brought vehicles from Ontario, rolled back the odometer to increase the value, insured vehicles for a higher amount, the stage fake accidents and thefts to claim the benefit.

The man pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud over $5,000 and received a sentence of four years in prison and was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to MPI.

Finally, a man living in Kenora tried to claim insurance after his car, valued at $24,000 rolled on the highway. He claimed he lived in Manitoba, where insurance is cheaper, but an investigation showed he owned a business in Kenora and paid income taxes in Ontario.

MPI’s Special Investigation Unit handles all auto insurance fraud cases. The work of the unit saved more than $8 million last year.