Soomair family arrested Saturday (Osceola County Jail)
Stephanie Allen Staff Writer
Investigators: Family accused of arson, insurance fraud after auto shop fire
The smoke and sirens were déjà vu for the Soomair family.
Exactly six years after their transmission shop in New York went up in flames, their new shop off East Colonial Drive in Orlando did the same, records show.
This time, though, officials said they quickly noticed something wasn't right.
Detectives on Saturday — more than a year after the fire — arrested the family, Ramdularie Soomair, 69, her husband, Surujlal Soomair, 59, and their son, 40-year-old Navin Soomair.
The father and son duo are facing charges of intentionally setting the fire, grand theft and insurance fraud, arrest reports state. Ramdularie Soomair is accused of signing a falsified insurance claim document, the reports state.
Investigators said the father and son, who ran DNS Transmission, repeatedly gave conflicting and changing statements after the fire on March 21, 2015.
There were holes in both of their alibis, investigators said, and cellphone records showed both were in the area of the shop just before Orange County Fire Rescue crews were called that morning.
Evidence also showed the fire was intentionally set with gasoline and originated from two separate vehicles inside the shop, according to the report.
In total, five customer's vehicles and the rented building were damaged.
Two days after the fire, the family filed an insurance claim for nearly $500,000 in lost inventory — a claim investigators said was highly exaggerated.
An inventory report from three months before the fire showed the company had about $40,000 in inventory, according to the arrest affidavit.
The family received $100,000 in insurance money after the March 21, 2009 fire at their shop in New York, records show.
The state fire marshal's office, which investigated the incident, said Navin Soomair called detectives early last month to check on the status of the case. Detectives interviewed him again and then had him take a voice-analysis test, which showed deception, the report states.
All three were arrested Saturday from their home in Poinciana and have since bailed out of jail
In Navin Soomair's arrest affidavit, investigators wrote that he is not a U.S. Citizen. It didn't say where he is from.