Man pretending to be an attorney strolls into crash site with green vest to take advantage of victims: Police

Background: The country of the clang successful Harris County, Texas (KTRK/YouTube). Inset: Pedro Cura (Harris County Constable Precinct 4).

A antheral was jailed successful Texas aft authorities accidental helium showed up astatine the country of a car crash wearing a greenish vest and pretending to beryllium an attorney.

Pedro Guajardo Cura, 53, has been charged with barratry, defined as "the enactment of encouraging lawsuits betwixt others successful bid to make ineligible concern for one's idiosyncratic summation and profit." Those who prosecute successful barratry are besides sometimes known derisively arsenic "ambulance chasers."

Cura, however, was seemingly not an attorney.

According to the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office, its deputies responded Saturday to a "major accident" successful the 500 artifact of North Sam Houston Parkway West, which is located conscionable northbound of downtown Houston. The instrumentality enforcement officers were investigating the clang erstwhile they encountered Cura, "who was engaging successful unlawful solicitation of concern from individuals progressive successful the mishap astatine the progressive clang scene."

Cura had been offering to assistance 1 of the drivers with their lawsuit and had photographed the damaged vehicles, per tribunal records reviewed by country ABC affiliate KTRK. The suspect was reportedly wearing a greenish vest with his telephone fig connected it and offering his services contempt not being a licensed lawyer and having thing to bash with the crash.

Cura was arrested and booked into the Harris County Jail. His enslaved was acceptable astatine $10,000.

During Cura's archetypal hearing, the magistrate told him that determination is "a existent information successful this benignant of behaviour due to the fact that you're talking to radical who person conscionable been successful an mishap and successful a susceptible state," adding that the radical progressive were speaking Spanish and could person been peculiarly reliant connected idiosyncratic offering help.

"Claiming you person ineligible cognition and tin assistance idiosyncratic is amerciable due to the fact that determination is simply a circumstantial level of spot that is conferred upon radical of authority, which includes lawyers," the magistrate said, per KTRK. "In different words, this full concern is fraud."

Constable Mark Herman chastised Cura for allegedly taking vantage of the radical progressive successful the crash.

"Accident victims should ne'er beryllium pressured oregon taken vantage of during an already stressful situation. Our deputies volition proceed enforcing the instrumentality and protecting those progressive successful postulation accidents from unlawful solicitation," Herman said.

The station Man pretending to beryllium an lawyer strolls into clang tract with greenish vest to instrumentality vantage of victims: Police archetypal appeared connected Law & Crime.