The number of deliberately set up ‘crash for cash accidents’ is on the increase. ‘Induced accidents’ – whereby the driver deliberately causes a crash so as to profit from bogus insurance claims – are becoming a serious national problem.
These ‘crash for cash accidents’ are being carried out by criminal gangs and these fraudulent insurance claims add approximately £40 to every premium paid by honest policy holders each year.
The fraudulent driver will typically brake suddenly when coming off a motorway junction, causing the car behind to go into the back of them. Drivers involved in the scams have even been known to disable their brake lights so that the car behind will have no warning to slow down.
Once the parties involved have swapped insurance details, the fraudsters will start making claims for damage to their cars and for personal injuries they don’t have - and in some cases, making them for people who weren’t even there, often claiming for the maximum number of passengers their vehicle can hold even if they were the only person in it at the time. In some organised crash-for-cash rings, people will act as ’phantom witnesses’ saying they were at the scene of the accident when they weren’t.
More than 22,000 staged, false accidents happen every year and this results in £200m worth of insurance payouts. The police are starting to crack down on this and last month one of the first cases of its kind went to court and ended in a gang of thirteen men being convicted for a total of 10 years.
Wakefield solicitors wrote:
I cant believe how far people are willing to go just for cash! It sickens me to think there are people out there doing such a thing... Its ok for them but what about the good drivers having to pay for their claims? Do they not think of this or are they too selfish to even care. IF a person is caught doing so then he should be made to pay back the insurance fee and double what he got and still get a sentance... Would make people think twice about it wouldn't it?