'Cash for crash' fraudster sentenced
Luton Today / 22nd October 2009
A Luton man involved in a huge 'cash for crash' insurance fraud was sentenced at court last week

At Luton Crown Court on Tuesday, Naveed Ahmed was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of community service for his part in the scam, where car accidents were staged so that compensation could be claimed. Ahmed, 26, of Atherstone Road, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of attempting to obtain a money transfer by deception, and was given a four-month sentence for each offence, to run concurrently. He was also ordered to pay £300 in court costs. Another man, Zia Ul Mustafa Qazi, 31, of Westbourne Road, was given a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to one count of obtaining a money transfer by deception. A confiscation hearing was adjourned until January 23. The investigation by Bedfordshire Police, codenamed Operation Exhort, began in May, 2006, and culminated in dawn raids across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire, involving more than 250 police officers. They seized cars, documents, cash and other property, and financial investigators and specialist search officers were brought in to help with the operation. Legal proceedings are currently under way against another 34 people alleged to have been involved in the fraud.