A Massachusetts personal injury lawyer jailed on auto insurance fraud charges has been barred from practicing law in the state.

Charles L. Lonardo, 49, of Lawrence, Mass., was disbarred by the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers Oct. 16, according to the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune. The disbarment is retroactive to June 21, 2006, when Lonardo’s license was temporarily suspended by the board.

Lonardo was convicted of conspiracy to commit auto insurance fraud in April 2006 and sentenced to 2 ½ years in jail. Prosecutors said Lonardo paid “runners” to plan auto accidents and deliver him supposed victims who then filed insurance claims.

Lonardo, who served 15 months in a state correctional alternative center, told the Eagle-Tribune that he maintains his innocence and took the cases without knowing they were fraudulent.

Lonardo’s firm brought in $10.4 million in car-related injury claims settlements from 1994 to his indictment in 2004, according to the report, winning a combined total of $20.8 million on all auto accident injury claims, $7 million more than any other local law firm over the same timeframe.

Lonardo’s firm handled 1,179 injury claims and collected more than $3 million from insurance companies in 2003, the Eagle-Tribune reported.