Photo & Video : Man deliberately crashed his Bugatti Veyron to collect $2.2 million insurance.

A driver has admitted to deliberately crashing his rare $1 million Bugatti into an East Texas swamp so that he could collect a $2.2 million insurance payout on the vehicle.

Andy Lee House, a 39-year-old car dealer from Lufkin, Texas, pleaded guilty to wire mail fraud on Tuesday and faces up to 20 years in a federal prison when he is sentenced.

After the accident in November 2009, House claimed he had been reaching for his cell phone when he looked up and saw a pelican, causing his 2006 Bugatti Veryon to swerve off the road.

He crashed into La Marque Lagoon near Galveston and left on the engine, filling it with salt water and destroying the vehicle, the Lufkin Daily News reported.

But he was unaware that a passing motorist had admired the vehicle and whipped out his phone to record it. The man captured the car as it went off the road and into the three-feet of water.

The footage, which the motorist posted to YouTube, allowed investigators to note discrepancies in House's account, they said.

House was then hit with a lawsuit from his Philadelphia insurers who claimed that he was committing fraud because there is no pelican visible in the video.

Authorities say House had bought the 2006 Bugatti Veryon - one of the fastest vehicles in the world - with a $1 million interest-free loan from a friend and then bought insurance on it as a collector's vehicle, valuing it at more than $2 million.

The Veyron is considered the world's fastest street-legal production car, with an everyday top speed of 213 miles per hour - but capable of reaching 253 mph. Only 300 of the cars were ever made.

Using the video evidence in their lawsuit, the insurance company said House, who owns Performance Auto Sales in Lufkin, also made no attempts to brake.

Philadelphia Indemnity said they found no skid marks on the road and said the car expert 'left the vehicle running for over fifteen minutes while it was submerged until it died on its own causing unnecessary damage to the vehicle's engine'. 

House had claimed that he had not immediately switched off the engine because he was getting badly bitten by mosquitoes.

The insurance company also argued that the accident actually occurred outside the scope of a collector vehicle because House had put over 1,200 miles on the Bugatti during the three weeks he owned it, using it for errands and business trips.

Gilbert Harrison of MCH Truck and Auto, who was called out to tow the vehicle at the time, had said that House 'took the loss in his stride'. 

House initially counter-sued, demanding the withheld $2.2 million for his ruined super-car.

But after pleading guilty, he will now be sentenced and face up to 20 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Records show that he was also convicted of an attempt to commit theft charge and an evading arrest charge in the 1990s.