A CASH for crash fraudster has been jailed for ten months after admitting to lying in court about an accident he purposefully caused in a Warwickshire supermarket car park.
Counter fraud investigators at Stratford-based NFU Mutual showed the man lied in his claim and helped bring about his committal for Contempt of Court.
Following the collision in Nuneaton, he made a claim against the victim, an NFU Mutual member and car insurance policyholder.
But CCTV footage showed the crash conman waited for his target to reverse out of her parking spot before quickly positioning his car in her path, causing the collision.
Medical records also showed he had a history of similar car park collisions.
Despite the evidence secured by NFU Mutual investigators on behalf of the woman, the fraudster proceeded to take his claim to county court before discontinuing his claim shortly before trial.
NFU Mutual then invited the court, on the basis of the evidence, to make a finding of Fundamental Dishonesty against the fraudster.
The judge found the claimant and his claim to be fundamentally dishonest and ordered costs of around £20,000 to be paid to NFU Mutual.
Following the concerns raised about the claimant’s dishonesty in his original case, the NFU Mutual counter fraud team has since pursued the fraudster for Contempt of Court.
Faced with the evidence, the fraudster admitted to engineering the collision and lying in court and was jailed.
Commenting on the case, David Pritchard, claims fraud manager at NFU Mutual, said: “Insurance fraud is a big business, thought to cost every UK policyholder £50 a year in premiums.
“‘Crash for cash’ fraud like this endangers the safety and hits the wallets of innocent people. At NFU Mutual, which is owned by and operated for its members, fraud against one member constitutes fraud against all members.
“In this case, we acted quickly on our member’s concerns to gather the evidence required to prove she and her young child had been the victim of fraud and bring the fraudster to justice.
“We hope this conviction sends a clear message that NFU Mutual will do all in our power to stand up for our members and root out insurance fraud wherever we see it.”
Stuart Poole, partner at DWF, acted on behalf of NFU Mutual.
He said: “In pursuing this successful contempt of court action, NFU Mutual have sent a clear message that they will not tolerate fraudulent claims being made against them.”
“Crash for cashcan be any insurance fraud claiming on a motor collision, ranging from claiming on non-existent crashes, collisions planned between people who know each other, or engineering a collision with an innocent road user.
“These frauds cost an estimated £340 million per year and can drive up the costs of insurance for innocent people.”
