Impounded Car Insurance UK have found staggering amounts of fraudulent insurance claims being made on British roads.
Seized Car Insurance and Impounded car insurance are insurance policies that are designed to get your car released from the compound after being seized by the police for driving without insurance.
Over 300,000 car accidents were staged by car Insurance fraudsters since 2008, insurance scams that affected more than 1,000 innocent motorists a week which have pushed up premiums for all drivers on the road.
“Crash for cash” fraud occurs when one or more drivers deliberately cause a road traffic accident for financial gain, these drivers often claim for injuries such as whiplash, as well as additional pay-outs to compensate for loss of vehicle or lost earnings due to injuries.
Different methods are used to create an accident that results in the victim believing they were at fault and taking responsibility.
Research has found that over 30,000 people have been caught out by a “slam-on” scam in the past year alone where the driver in the car in front, for no reason at all slammed on their brakes causing an accident with the car behind.
Fraudsters usually target females and young drivers as they believe they are most likely to leave the insurance claim go unchallenged. Research shows that in the past two years, almost 67% of victims were female and 59pc were aged 34 or younger.
In addition to the staging of accidents, there has been a marked increase in fraudsters exaggerating the circumstances of an accident in an attempt to gain a higher payout.
For example, fraudsters could exaggerate or even fabricate an injury in order to claim compensation, or try to claim for vehicle damage that is totally unrelated to the accident.
33% of drivers who have been involved in an accident in the past two years say the other party tried to claim compensation for injuries to passengers who were not present in the vehicle at the time, or say the other party exaggerated the circumstances of the accident in order to inflate their claim.
Car insurance premiums have fallen since government ministers began a crackdown on fraudulent whiplash claims, however the value of court awards for those injured in car crashes have increased in recent years.
Staged accident tactics
The slam-on
This is when a fraudster brakes sharply for no reason other than to deliberately cause an accident, causing the motorist behind to drive into the back of them. In such cases, it is found that the fraudsters will often disconnect their brake lights so the driver behind does not know that they are braking. Over 30,000 accident victims were involved in a staged rear-end shunt in 2013.
The flash for cash scam
This is when the fraudster flashes their headlights at the victim to give them way to move into their lane, but will then drive ahead and crash into the back of their vehicle. Some 3% of motorists involved in a car accident in the past year believe they fell victim to this scam.
The full-car smash
In these cases fraudsters take a car-load of passengers out on the roads and then induce an accident with another vehicle. The fraudsters then make many claims for personal injuries, which will most likely far outweigh the cost of repairing the vehicles involved.
In each of these scenarios it usually boils down to a ‘your word against mine’ situation making it extremely difficult for the insurers to allocate blame.
