Police Smash Insurance Fraud Gang
Life Style Extra / 29th June 2006
Police have smashed a sophisticated gang of car insurance fraudsters who deliberately staged at least 60 road accidents to make over half a million pounds.

The seven strong gang, who used the proceeds of their crimes to buy luxury cars including a Ferrari and two BMW X5s, systematically set up the accidents to make false insurance claims.

Methods used included buying damaged luxury cars at a fraction of their value and then faking a crash before claiming the full insurance value.

The gang also targetted respectable families who they knew would be insured - and deliberately crashed into them, before using 'witnesses', who were in on the scam, to make the crooks look like the wronged party.

The gang, who used several false identities, would then claim for personal injuries from insurance firms.

Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Wilmott, Head of City of London Police's Economic Crime Department, said that the gang arrested this morning had come to the attention of police four months ago.

Police had been liaising with insurance companies about the growing problem of insurance fraud and a new database was established meaning more insurance information was pooled.

The investigation led officers to Harrow in north London where a number of suspicious claims had been made. This morning, 80 policemen raided the addresses, arresting six men and a woman.

DCI Wilmott said the seven were working as a gang to set up the insurance scams.

He said: "This gang made anything up to 60 staged accidents.

"There's a number of variations on how they do this. One is they will buy an old vehicle for £200 and then buy an expensive but wrecked vehicle.

"The old vehicle then allegedly hits the very expensive vehicle that's already written off and the insurer would pay out to the value of the expensive vehicle. The group of criminals will have 'witnesses' to the accident who are also staged.

"The other way of doing it is buy an old banger and deliberately hit a nice vehicle with a family in it that they know will be insured. They then produce their own witnesses and will claim personal injury, things like whiplash or claims that they can't go to work.

"We identified this group of five or six individuals and put 80 officers out this morning. We raided a number of addresses and arrested all the people we wanted to.

"We have recovered a Ferrari and two BMW X5s that we believe are the proceeds of the crime. The losses in the case are estimated at over half a million pounds.

"We are pretty pleased with the result which will send a strong message out.

"Where there's money to be made people will try and take it off people. We are determined to try and reverse that."

Martin Milliner, Claims Fraud Manager at Direct Line said: "Insurers take fraud extremely seriously. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a victimless crime.

"Fraudsters cost the industry an estimated £1bn each year and unfortunately, it's honest customers who end up paying.

"We have dedicated teams of counter fraud specialists right across the country who utilise a wide range of measures to identify and track down fraudsters in order to ensure that costs are contained.

"This joint initiative with the Economic Crime Department of the City of London Police is an excellent example of just how insurers and the Police are increasingly and effectively working together in order to crack down on
fraud and on those responsible for organising it.

"With the launch in July of the Insurance Fraud Bureau and greater industry-wide co-operation and initiatives of this type, fraudsters ought to be left in no doubt that one way or another, they will be found out."