Monday 11th August 2008

Police: Crash Gangs On The Rise

Drivers warned that car crash fraudsters are now making £200million a year

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Drivers are being warned to look out for criminals who stage road accidents to claim money on insurance. The 'cash for crash' scams are snaring thousands of motorists and experts believe it now costs the insurance industry at least £200million a year.

The scammers often make innocent drivers crash into them so that they can claim for damage and injuries such as whiplash. Usually they will brake hard so that the driver behind goes into the back of them.

Police are now telling drivers to be on the look out for the practice, which is often carried out by well organised criminal gangs. The practice is apparently spreading at an alarming rate and recently the Insurance Fraud Bureau smashed a number of gangs across the country.

Overall motor insurance fraud is costing an estimated £1.6billion a year and around £50 is being added to the average drivers policy to cover the losses. Superintendent Glyn Jones of the Metropolitan Police said: 'Some people see this as a victimless crime but it certainly isn't. Criminal activity like this pushes up everyone's premiums.'

[LukeBird]

Shoot them.

[J111]

"The scammers often make innocent drivers crash into them so that they can claim for damage and injuries such as whiplash. Usually they will brake hard so that the driver behind goes into the back of them."

Hmm

Only a fool breaks the two second rule ?

[J111]

Dammit, there are now two threads on this, neither of which have the article attached to them

[LukeBird]

That's a bit odd. It was here, because I hit the 'add your comments' link.


Wheredered it go?

[Fidgits]

LukeBird said:

That's a bit odd. It was here, because I hit the 'add your comments' link.


Wheredered it go?

maybe it rear ended a dodgy guy on the way to the forum

[G0ldfysh]

All the more reason to not sit so close to the car in front..

Then no matter how hard they brake you should have time to react

[illmonkey]

I hope the extra £50 is going towards them investigating accidents more thoroughly. Claims are all too easy to make these days! Rather than them just putting the money in the "fraud pot".

Last year, we'd just swapped from a £10k Mini to a £700 E30. We went 3rd party as it saved £200. 3 weeks later, my girlfriend drove into her mum’s car at a junction (they were all going out for a family meal)

The insurer with a long nose just paid out the damage to the mother’s car (£3500) no questions. No inspections.

It would have been annoying to prove it was all innocent, but that could have easily of been a setup!

[Snoggledog]

Disgraceful that people intentionally cause accidents! Let's hope that eventually they'll be so badly hurt that no matter how much money they get they'll never live a normal life. Harsh I know, but these kind of criminals should be sorted out.

[Spiritual_Beggar]

G0ldfysh said:

All the more reason to not sit so close to the car in front..

Then no matter how hard they brake you should have time to react

exactly!!

nail hit squarely on the head there.

[gti-ted]

To be fair most of these scams are at roundabouts and the perps brake once over the white line giving you and i little or no chance of reacting in time.
I bet most of them are foreigners looking for a quick buck

[bazking69]

It is an issue that needs a greater percentage of our premium put into investigating and stamping it out, instead of loading our premiums to bolster the multi million pound profits of the insurance companies while not actually addressing the problem as such. A with everything, the cost is passed onto the innocent consumer. It is not an acceptable practice.

[R360]

Im sure i remember seeing a documentary about a guy who had claimed whiplash from around 50 accidents, I think his whole family were involved and he made a good living from it.

I think its disgraceful and i totally agree with some other comments on here, i hope they do themselves some serious injury, and them ask themselves was it really worth it?

[drewcole81]

Spiritual_Beggar said:

G0ldfysh said:

All the more reason to not sit so close to the car in front..

Then no matter how hard they brake you should have time to react

exactly!!

nail hit squarely on the head there.

Just what I was going to say!

Even at a roundabout you should keep back enough and wait for the car infront to clearly pull away just incase, I know its how to do it. But I guess we all at some point get too close!

Still I think a mass culling of these kind of people wouldn't go a miss, propbably get some more votes in for Gordon if he did!!!

Edited by drewcole81 on Monday 11th August 11:41

[mike-r]

Good excuse to get some 6 pots then.

[Fotofrog]

mike-r said:

Good excuse to get some 6 pots then.

• orders up a set*

[johno_VR6]

Original Article said:

Drivers are being warned to look out for criminals who stage road accidents to claim money on insurance.

And how exactly do we spot these? Do they wear certain clothing??

G0ldfysh said:

All the more reason to not sit so close to the car in front..

Then no matter how hard they brake you should have time to react

Totally agree with that, running into the car infront puts you solely at fault, regardless of whether they're a scammer or an innocent party...

[London GT3]

drewcole81 said:

Spiritual_Beggar said:

G0ldfysh said:

All the more reason to not sit so close to the car in front..

Then no matter how hard they brake you should have time to react

exactly!!

nail hit squarely on the head there.

Just what I was going to say!

Even at a roundabout you should keep back enough and wait for the car infront to clearly pull away just incase, I know its how to do it. But I guess we all at some point get too close!

Still I think a mass culling of these kind of people wouldn't go a miss, propbably get some more votes in for Gordon if he did!!!

Edited by drewcole81 on Monday 11th August 11:41

All very worthy sentiments but I would be surprised if we aren't all caught out occasionally. I know there are times when things happen and I breathe a sigh of relief that I "got away with it". I commute daily in London traffic and the margins are always squeezed no matter how hard you try. I would go as far as to suggest that you can never cover every base.

[hayesey]

how can people get away with doing this all the time though? Don't their names go onto a database when a claim is made in their favour? Surely it should be fairly obvious that the same people are making lots of claims or are they using false identities or something?

[Steameh]

I would of thought the way it would be done is overtaking, pulling straight in front and slamming on the anchors immediately.

[rfn]

hayesey said:

how can people get away with doing this all the time though? Don't their names go onto a database when a claim is made in their favour? Surely it should be fairly obvious that the same people are making lots of claims or are they using false identities or something?

When this occured to my Mother I believe it transpired that the guy she hit wasn't actually insured. Four "relatives" also appeared out of nowhere and also claimed whiplash etc - I think their personal injury claims totalled £50k, plus the damage to the cars.

Fortunately the insurers were very helpful/useful and I don't believe they ever got a penny (accident was 2 years ago).