The police are cracking down on car insurance fraudsters who endanger road users by “crashing for cash”, with a quantity of high profile convictions over the final few weeks.
Earlier this week, for instance, 2 men were jailed and 2 much more received suspended jail terms at Liverpool Crown Court.
And last month, 3 males from Reading had been put behind bars for targeting innocent motorists in the hope of causing unnecessary collisions as element of a crash for cash scam.
What’s going on?
Insurance fraud shot up by 18% in 2013, pushing the total to a record £1.3 billion, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
Some of this fraud was committed by opportunistic people who just attempt to boost the value of a genuine claim by adding extra items to the list of possessions stolen or damaged in an incident, or who fake or exaggerate an injury, usually whiplash.
Organised insurance coverage fraud has an altogether darker side, even though – a single in which criminal gangs place innocent road users’ lives at threat by staging dangerous accidents to defraud insurers.
Recognized as “crash for cash”, it’s a trend that has grown at a worrying rate more than recent years.
Figures released by insurer Aviva earlier this year show that the quantity of crashes triggered deliberately so that these involved could make insurance claims for whiplash injuries shot up by 51% final year.
With motorists and pedestrians becoming place at risk, and “crash for cash” accidents causing the business far more than £10 million a year, it’s no surprise that both insurers and the government are keen to crack down on the perpetrators.
How do “crash for crash” scams perform?
There are a quantity of diverse kinds of “crash for cash” fraud.
In 1 of the most common – and most unsafe – versions, fraudsters stage a automobile crash involving innocent drivers, for instance by slamming their brakes on at a road junction, often obtaining disabled the brake lights.
The unsuspecting motorist behind then crashes into the back of them, which means they can make a claim for the damage, as well as whiplash injuries – all on the other person’s insurance.
The Reading fraudsters sentenced last month had been involved in this sort of scam – they drove in a 2-car convoy in which the very first would make an erratic manoeuvre, causing the second auto to brake and an innocent road user to drive into the back of it.
The Merseyside men jailed this week, on the other hand, simply fabricated a vehicle crash made to assist them defraud insurer LV= out of much more than £500,000.
The total integrated claims for whiplash, replacement car hire and 2 written off automobiles – all from an accident that never took location.
What is being done to stop car insurance coverage fraud?
The Ministry of Justice is taking a quantity of actions to clamp down on car insurance coverage fraudsters, such as “crash for cash” gangs.
It is, for instance, introducing panels of independent health-related practitioners to diagnose whiplash victims, as well as banning lawyers and claim firms from offering incentives such as cost-free tablet computers to encourage people to make insurance claims.
From subsequent year, courts will also be in a position to refuse compensation at any level to men and women found to have exaggerated an insurance coverage claim.
The ABI has also launched the Insurance coverage Fraud Register (IFR) to combat the problem of dishonest Britons faking and exaggerating claims for their personal personal achieve.
The first market-wide database of identified insurance fraudsters, the IFR assists insurers to spot dodgy claims more easily.
Ever been the victim of a crash-for-money scam? Let us know in the box below…
Police crack whip on crash for money
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