Motoring Fraud

What is Motoring Fraud?

Motoring fraud can arise in many different ways, including:

• Organised fraud
• Staged accidents
  – Where the accident was staged on both sides and the details of entirely innocent people are used in the claim process.
  – Where the driver or passenger of a target vehicle make a claim but the accident was not genuine, such as ‘crash for cash’ or ‘flash for cash’ scams.
• Phantom passenger claims
• Exploitation of genuine accidents
• Exaggerated personal injuries
• Dumping a vehicle in order to claim it as stolen
• Ghost brokers, who sell unsuspecting drivers fake insurance policies
• Ghost accidents, where a driver claims for an accident that ever occurred

Staged accidents are the most common form of motoring fraud. In the internet era, it is easy to obtain sufficient details of an individual required to set up fraudulent motor insurance. Those details are then used to buy a car, insure it and be named as the individual responsible for causing the staged accident. Sometimes those details are then used to hire a replacement car under the terms of the insurance policy. Using that car, a further accident is staged.

It has been known that people working within hire car companies have not complied with their requirements as to verifying identification because they too are involved in the criminal enterprise. The criminals at the top of the tree, however, are the directors of the Claim Management Companies (CMC).

Instructing a Motor Fraud Barrister

When an accident happens most people either call their insurers or go to a CMC who deal with the whole process. It is the latter which creates the problems.

The CMC would refer the claim onto a firm of solicitors with whom they have a close working relationship. For that referral, they used to be paid a “referral fee”. This practice has now been abolished but the companies are finding other methods to recoup that money in ways which do not fall foul of the legislation – of course, staged accidents are still occurring.

All of this means you might be caught up in a claim that could seriously affect your future if you are involved in a deliberate accident.

At St Pauls, our fraud barristers have a wealth of experience dealing with complex motor fraud cases. If you or your client are suspected of motor insurance fraud, get in touch today for advice from a qualified and experienced motor fraud barrister.