Byrarley Claims Investigation

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ACCIDENT OR SCAM??????
Picture the scene… You're on a roundabout, when suddenly the car in front of you stops! You don’t know it is about to stop because the brake lights didn’t come on. You drive straight into the back of the car and the driver claims on your insurance for damages and a massive personal injury. Did you ever think that you could be the victim of a SCAM?

HOW IT WORKS

The key to this scam is that it's difficult to prove it's a scam by the insurance companies, and that the police generally will not investigate or prosecute unless presented with strong evidence by those insurance companies.

The Scam was first noticed in the early months of 2005 following a spate of similar incidents in the West Yorkshire area, the idea for the scam however, has been said to have originated in the North West Region.
For this Scam to work the ‘Scammer’ will disconnect the brake lights of an old vehicle (which will usually be barley roadworthy in the first instance) so that you will not see him/her braking and have no visual warning of the vehicle slowing or stopping. When the ‘Scammer’ reaches a roundabout and he/she is being followed closely by a ‘Victim’ or ‘Mark’ (YOU) they will brake sharply causing you to collide with the rear of their vehicle. It has also been known for opportunists to brake suddenly when approaching a roundabout even if the route is clear. The ‘Scammer’ will then pursue a claim against your insurance for damage to their vehicle and personal injury- these claims have been known to mount up in excess of £30’000!

Because it's a rear-end collision, the second driver, who's really the victim of this heavily organised crime, is assumed to be at fault. The first driver - and the passengers in the car (if any) - claim on the victim's insurance. Witnesses, part of the same gang as the driver, will come forward to verify what happened.
Insurers believe there could be as many as 10,000 induced accidents a year.

Not only is this type of Scam extremely dangerous and illegal it can also cost you the Victim money as they claim from your insurance, you loose your no claims and your premiums can rise by hundreds of pounds a year.

HOW TO AVOID THE SCAM

The main way to avoid this scam is to follow the rules of the road, and not follow another vehicle too closely, remain very alert at all times and most importantly keep an eye on the vehicle in front. The occupants may turn to look at you or may even make a gesture just before the trap is sprung.
Staged by professionals, it's truthfully not always possible to avoid this, unfortunately.

IF YOU THINK YOU ARE A VICTIM OF THIS TYPE OF SCAM…..

If you believe you have been a victim of a Scam like this then there are ways to deal with it legally. Follow these simple steps following ANY Traffic Collision and you should come through the other side smiling! 
- As with any accident, exchange details with the other driver. If there's been a possible injury, inform the police.
- Have the other driver write down his version of events.
- Write down your own version of the events, including descriptions of the people in the other vehicle - their sex, what they were wearing, everything you can.
- When you contact your insurance company, tell them you believe you were the victim of a scam. The insurance industry has set up the Insurance Fraud Bureau to share intelligence on suspicious claims.
- Remember, this is a large, organised crime, and usually very professionally executed. If you suspect that the accident is not genuine, leave it to your insurance company to investigate. They're eager to crack down on this particular type of fraud.



CAR INSURACE FRAUD GANG SENTENCED
A group who were involved in a plot to make false car insurance claims were sentenced and ordered to pay compensation costs to AXA insurance at Croydon Crown Court recently....

During 2002 and 2003 the nine men and one woman obtained fraudulent insurance for motor vehicles and then submitted, or assisting in submitting, false claims for accidents around London and the subsequent repairs, storage, car hire and personal injury to AXA insurance.

The claims were all against third party motor insurance policies that had been issued over the telephone. The significance of using a third party policy was that in the event of a claim the insured vehicle will not be examined by the insurers, only the vehicle it has allegedly damaged.

On one occasion in March 2003, three of the group were involved in a claim for £6,000 for a BMW. They said the car been written off in an accident, but it was actually sold to a new owner. When contacted by investigators the new owner said there appeared to be nothing wrong with the vehicle.

The case was referred to the City of London Police Fraud Squad in 2004 after investigators for AXA detected a particular pattern of claims via Accident Management Companies.

The ringleader, Wajid Hussain, was an accident claim manager who ran two companies Xclusive and Premier. Hussain played a part in all the insurance claims and both these companies profited from the claims by being paid for storing the ‘damaged’ vehicles. Following the launch of the AXA investigation Hussain issued a death threat to the insurance companies investigator.

The other major player was Mohammed Ferdhaus who worked alongside Hussain to help make the fraudulent claims. Wajid Hussain operated his companies, ‘Xclusive Auto Group’ and more latterly ‘Premier’ from Edgware. Ferdhaus ran his company ‘Prestige Auto Group’ from Walthamstow

DC Malcolm Driscoll from City of London Police said: "The submission of false claims impacts on us all and it is important that we do our utmost to bring responsible parties to justice"

“This has been a long and complex investigation and the help we have had from our colleagues at AXA has been invaluable in bringing it to a successful conclusion.”

Richard Davies, Group Fraud Risk Manager, AXA UK said:

”For far too long insurance fraud has not been recognised as a serious crime with prosecutions difficult to secure. We are now seeing massive increases in detection but we still believe £1.6 billion worth of insurance fraud is committed each year. We are therefore, as an industry, investing heavily in tools and methods to uncover all types of fraud to ensure we protect the vast majority of honest policyholders who become the innocent victims of such crimes."

The two other members of the gang are due to be sentenced on 11 September.

Those sentenced were:

Wajid Hussain, 38, from Slough, 2 1/2 years imprisonment.
Mohammed Ferdhaus, 35, from Greenford, Middlesex, 18 months imprisonment.
Farid Sekanderzada, 43, from Edgware, Middlesex, nine months suspended sentence.
Lotte Hill, 34, from Castlethorpe, Milton Keynes, nine months suspended sentence.
Mahmood Rana, 43, from Wembley, Middlesex, nine months suspended sentence.
Floyd Golding, 38, Watford, Hertfordshire, 120 hours community punishment order.
Yogaratnam Karunakaran, 41, Ilford, Essex, 120 hours community punishment order.
Jegatheesan Shanmuganathan, 37, of Pinner, Middlesex has already been sentenced. He was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £9,396.99 compensation.
Anwar Hussain,25, Ilford, Essex and Krishnapillai Kiritharan, 38, Harrow, Essex, will be sentenced on 11 September.

[SOURCE POLICEORACLE.COM]

CAR INSURANCE FRAUD IS WORTH £5MILLION A WEEK
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has released figures which show that over the course of last year, 24,000 fraudulent motor insurance claims were uncovered by insurers.

The fraud was worth a total of over a quarter of a billion pounds, or £5m per week.

The last three years has seen a surge in the number of detected fraudulent claims, which have soared by 70% during that time.

Successfully prosecuted claims include a Rolls Royce owner who removed various items from his own vehicle, and then claimed £10,000 under the pretence that they had been stolen.

He was found out by police and received a criminal conviction.

Other cases include a man who pushed his own car off a cliff to use the insurance money to pay off Hire Purchase costs, and a woman who deliberately ran into her own house with her Land Rover following an argument with her partner and claimed it was an accident.

Director of General Insurance and Health at the ABI, Nick Starling, has destroyed the case for insurance fraud being a victimless crime by pointing out that as a result of the activity insurance premiums for millions of honest motorists rise by an extra £40 per year, on average.

Because this, insurers are redoubling their efforts to detect false claims, and those who are caught committing the offence could face a criminal record in addition to much more expensive insurance and credit.


[SOURCE INSURANCEDAILY.CO.UK]


FRAUDULENT CLAIMS COST THE UK £4MILLION A DAY
Fraudulent insurance claims cost UK insurers a total of £1.6bn a year, according to a report by the Association of British Insurers (ABI)
False claims cost the industry £4m a day, adding £40 to the average premium paid by policyholders, the ABI said.
Deliberate spills or cigarette burns on carpets and furniture, in order to make false insurance claims, were common examples of fraud, the ABI said.
The trade body canvassed the views of almost 7,000 people for its survey.
One-in-10 of respondents admitted to having cheated their insurance company, the ABI said.
About half the total cost of dishonest claims occurred under home contents and buildings insurance, the organisation added.
Exaggerated claims for injury against local authorities - following a trip over paving stones - or overestimating the value of personal items lost while on holiday were other common examples of insurance fraud, the ABI said.
The organisation also cited the example of one man who claimed he was unable to walk following an accident, but was later photographed in his local paper collecting the top goal scorer award for his local football team.
"Honest customers should not have to pay for cheats," said Nick Starling, the ABI's director of general insurance and health.
"These figures highlight that greater deterrents, such as criminal prosecutions, are needed to discourage fraud. This is why we are calling for police forces to be given more resources so that fraud can be treated with the seriousness it deserves."
The ABI represents almost 400 companies, which account for more than 91% of all insurance business in the UK.

[Source BBC News]

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