Hit and run and ex directory number

[W124Bob]

My elderly father inlaw was involved in an accident where the other driver did not stop, police attend and witness has dashcam footage so the police have traced a registered keeper, charges pending we understand. He has now had several ambulance chaser phone calls despite his number being ex directory so how have these people obtained the details? Also is it customary for the police to reveal details of the other driver to my FiL, no insurance etc plus telling him the driver lives in the same locality. We've only just managed to sort out a serious banking scam involving tapped phones and 5 figure sum removed from an account so are obviously annoyed at an ex directory number being given out by some party dealing with the accident.

[Vroom101]

I very much doubt the police give out motorists' details to ambulance chasers. My guess would be your father-in-law's insurance company.

[Dave Hedgehog]

your insurance company sells the list of accidents it has dealt with to the ambulance chasers

i had exactly the same thing, some of them where verging on criminal / fraudulent in trying to get me to make an injury claim

[dacouch]

Vroom101 said:

I very much doubt the police give out motorists' details to ambulance chasers. My guess would be your father-in-law's insurance company.

It's unusual but it's certainly not unheard of for members of the emergency services to pass details of injured parties over to ambulance chaser

[W124Bob]

I suspected it's the insurance company which may have passed on the phone number, there have been similar threads on here in the past. I was just wondering whether BiB revealing the whereabouts of the driver was a common occurrence, particularly as the driver lives in the same small area as my inlaws.

[herewego]

W124Bob said:

I suspected it's the insurance company which may have passed on the phone number, there have been similar threads on here in the past. I was just wondering whether BiB revealing the whereabouts of the driver was a common occurrence, particularly as the driver lives in the same small area as my inlaws.

In the event of a traffic accident drivers need to exchange details anyway so I see it as a service rather than a problem.

[Rovinghawk]

W124Bob said:

I was just wondering whether BiB revealing the whereabouts of the driver was a common occurrence, particularly as the driver lives in the same small area as my inlaws.

Many years ago the police refused to give me details of the other party in a very similar situation to this. After my solicitor ripped into them they had a change of heart & told me. HTH

[W124Bob]

I understand the requirement for the insurance company to have as much detail as possible, just concerned as the inlaws are both well over 80. The truth is my wive and I both regard my FiL as to old to be driving, so we regarded the initial accident details(as told by him) with some distrust. My wive visited last week and tried to contact the officer in charge about FiL's continued driving but was unable to see the officer.

[PAULJ5555]

I wonder how much the insurance companys get as income from this and how much they pay out for the claims of compo.

Seems a bit silly if its costing them money in the end.

[masermartin]

PAULJ5555 said:

I wonder how much the insurance companys get as income from this and how much they pay out for the claims of compo.

Seems a bit silly if its costing them money in the end.

If company A doesn't sell details, they don't get any income on this, only paying out for companies B-Z's clients claiming against them. It's a loop that can only be stopped completely; one company taking the moral high ground will be at a huge commercial disadvantage and won't impact any other companies' behaviour.

[aw51 121565]

It might be the vehicle repairer who sold the details.

One "famous" poster on this forum swears - or swore, he's not asserted this lately - that selling personal details saves insurance companies money...

[CallorFold]

Dave Hedgehog said:

your insurance company sells the list of accidents it has dealt with to the ambulance chasers

i had exactly the same thing, some of them where verging on criminal / fraudulent in trying to get me to make an injury claim

Sounds like same thing happened to me. Went through non-fault claim via Tesco / Their accident management co. who they passed me onto to sort the claim, car got repaired, all sorted.

I made it very clear from the start, I wouldn't be making a personal injury claim as it was a low speed incident and I was feeling OK.

A month or so later the calls started from all manner of company, with one even using the words "are you sure you didn't even wake up with a stiff neck, everyone wakes up with a stiff neck from time to time, all you need to do is say Yes to get a claim under way".

Not sure if it would have been Tesco or the AMC who passed my details on but somehow my mobile number got out there.