Five fraudsters who generated £1.1m in fake personal injury claims through the use of a ‘crash for cash’ scheme have been sent to prison.
Teams of fraudsters induced crashes to generate the claims, which were made through an accident management company run by the scheme’s ringleader.
Said ringleader, Mohammed Zubair Jamil, received a sentence of four and a half years in prison, with the consortium having staged an estimated 300 crashes.
The consortium was found out when suspicions were raised about a claim, following the emergence of data from a telematics unit installed in the ‘lead’ car, which provided information on the accident.
This data was then analysed by fraud investigators from accident investigation company APU, who gave enough evidence in court that further witnesses were not required.
“In short, this was a well planned and carefully executed operation involving orchestrated collisions on public roads involving innocent members of the public,” said the judge of the trial HH J Barrie. “The idea that crash for cash frauds are victimless crimes has to be rebuffed immediately. The impact of this offending on the insurance industry is substantial and this in turn leads to routine increases in insurance premiums for the wider public.
“The manner of the driving in the collisions is inherently dangerous involving the sudden slamming on of brakes in traffic, often at night and often in poor weather conditions. Unlike the fraudsters, the innocent occupants of the cars behind have no opportunity to prepare or brace themselves for the impact,” he added.
