London, Sep 20 (Inditop.com) Pakistani, Afghan and Bangladeshi criminal gangs in Britain are staging deliberate car accidents in order to claim their victims’ car insurance money, police say.
In what has been dubbed a “cash for crash” scam, the organised gangs, operating primarily in Yorkshire, Lancashire and the suburbs of London, are said to be costing the British insurance industry about 350 million pounds a year.
The modus operandi of the gangs appears to be to move closely in a convoy of two cars – the first car suddenly brakes very hard, as does the second, forcing the targeted victim’s car to crash into the rear of the second car, police said.
The perpetrators then make a fraudulent car crash claim to their victim’s insurance company for damages to their vehicle and for personal injuries, such as whiplash – real or not.
Some fraudsters have claimed for injuries to persons not even present in the vehicle.
Ten such gangs operate in northwest London alone, and the daily count of staged accidents could be up to 20, London police inspector Nick Chalmers told BBC Asian Radio.
According to an Insurance Fraud Bureau report issued in July this year, incidents of criminally staged, fake car accidents are on the increase.
The cost to the industry is passed on to all drivers, not just the victims.
According to the Association of British Insurers, all bogus claims – including those made in ‘cash for crash’ scams – can add five percent, or 44 pounds, to the insurance premiums of law-abiding motorists.
A two-year investigation by Hertfordshire police, called Operation Mysterious, resulted in one gang receiving a total of 10 years in jail earlier this year.
“Innocent members of the public are being involved in serious collisions by criminal gangs just to make money. It is putting them and other road users seriously at risk,” Chalmers told Sky News.
