Crash for cash insurance scams on the rise

[Marque]

Has anyone here been involved in an incident like this?

BBC News - Crash scam figures at record high, insurers warn

Surely, insurance companies should be on top of this by now.

 

[d w124]

That`s old,people have been doing that for years

 

[Rayny]

That`s old,people have been doing that for years

Do you mean 'people', or lying, cheating, selfish animals ?

 

[MOCAŠ]

Pretty sure it's people. Not heard any reports of animals running these scams...

 

[MOCAŠ]

That`s old,people have been doing that for years

Just seen the item on the BBC, and the news is that it's moving south, having previously been concentrated in the North-west and Midlands.

 

[RobertoMercini]

I've noticed a certain demographic seem to be responsible for a vast amount of these 'claims'

 

[markjay]

Friend of mine used to work in the filed... one of the things that has been done to combat this is the introduction of legislation that prevents a claimants from 'pulling-out' of an insurance court case.

One classic scam, is when 5 claimants put in claims for whiplash saying they were all passengers in the car at the time, but the vehicle was caught on CCTV with only the driver in it...

This way, if the scam is exposed in court, the claimant will not only loose the case but will have substantial costs awarded to the insurance company.

Problem is, most of the people running these schemes are very good at living under the authorities' radar so in many cases these costs are not really collectible...

 

[ss201]

I've noticed a certain demographic seem to be responsible for a vast amount of these 'claims'

Sadly, you are spot on with your observation. A friend of mine was an investigator for an insurance company, working in Lancs. 100% of claims she investigated of this nature were from the same "demographic" as the two convicted in this case. This type of fraud has been going on for years in the Preston, Blackburn, Burnley area, where there is a very large population of this "demographic".

£13 million fraud and they get two years, one suspended. There's no justice anymore. A few months inside then they'll be straight back to their old tricks.

Should you ever be a victim, get your mobile phone out, take photographs of those involved and watch the perpetrators scatter and their claim evaporate. That was the advice my friend gave to me.

I won't say what I would do to them..................

 

[RobertoMercini]

Sadly, you are spot on with your observation. A friend of mine was an investigator for an insurance company, working in Lancs. 100% of claims she investigated of this nature were from the same "demographic" as the two convicted in this case. This type of fraud has been going on for years in the Preston, Blackburn, Burnley area, where there is a very large population of this "demographic".

£13 million fraud and they get two years, one suspended. There's no justice anymore. A few months inside then they'll be straight back to their old tricks.

Should you ever be a victim, get your mobile phone out, take photographs of those involved and watch the perpetrators scatter and their claim evaporate. That was the advice my friend gave to me.

I won't say what I would do to them..................

Exactly - unfortunately fraud must still be seen as a 'victimless' crime. They should have the book thrown at them - if someone stole 13mil from a bank with a banana in their pocket it would be treated much worse, probably because the bank clerk would be the 'victim'.

Its far too easy to exploit to the hilt and no doubt this particular demographic have been adept at sharing their wares so that the law recently brought in that allows the courts to take all their ill-gotten gains back (unsure what its called) will be all but useless

 

[nick.ged]

a local thug near me drives a turbo Porsche and lives like a king, been doing this and importing fags from Europe for years... never gets pulled or anything, it is seriously unfair.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Its far too easy to exploit to the hilt and no doubt this particular demographic have been adept at sharing their wares so that the law recently brought in that allows the courts to take all their ill-gotten gains back (unsure what its called) will be all but useless

Am I the only one to detect more than a hint of racism here? Using the euphemistic term 'particular demographic' doesn't excuse it. Unless the demographic you're referring to is simply the criminal fraternity. Either way, it would be helpful if you used plainer English.

 

[Dryce]

Am I the only one to detect more than a hint of racism here? Using the euphemistic term 'particular demographic' doesn't excuse it.

Hopefully you're the only one overstepping the mark on this.

 

[RobertoMercini]

Am I the only one to detect more than a hint of racism here? Using the euphemistic term 'particular demographic' doesn't excuse it. Unless the demographic you're referring to is simply the criminal fraternity. Either way, it would be helpful if you used plainer English.

If you were to research it, I would have no doubt whatsoever that a particular section of British Society (not specifically criminal) would be responsible for this particular type of fraud. That isn't racist. The reason I have to use the terms I have is for fear of being branded exactly that.

You are more likely to find white, middle-class family teenagers clogging up supermarkets in the early hours with their modified cars than black working class. You are more likely to find black, working class families going to to attend church on Sunday in the area of Manchester where I hail from than you are white working class. Are either of those statements racist? They're merely observations.

In the same way that scrotes and criminals come in all shapes and sizes I would say that certain crimes are more likely to be committed by different parts of the population. A bit of lateral thinking required here I think

 

[RobertoMercini]

MOCAS, in relation to that particular quote, maybe 'particular demographic' in that context should probably have read simply 'they' as in fraudsters in general - fraudsters are well aware of the laws available to take their belongings and will find workarounds where they can for sure.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Ok, my comment wasn't intended to start anything - quite the reverse. After reading ss201's response, I didn't want to see this thread become an opportunity for one person after another to agree that these scams are associated with a 'certain demographic' without that term having been defined, otherwise how on earth would they know what they were agreeing with?

RobertoMercini - if you meant fraudsters in general when you said 'particular demographc', then in your original post you were basically saying that you've noticed that fraudsters tend to be responsible for scams. Good observation.

Statistically, it may be a matter of fact that one racial demographic or another tends to be asociated with a particular type of crime, but it serves no useful purpose to casually drop this into a conversation. Crimes are committed by criminals, and it's not equitable to tar a whole community with the same brush.

 

[RobertoMercini]

Ok, my comment wasn't intended to start anything - quite the reverse. After reading ss201's response, I didn't want to see this thread become an opportunity for one person after another to agree that these scams are associated with a 'certain demographic' without that term having been defined, otherwise how on earth would they know what they were agreeing with?

RobertoMercini - if you meant fraudsters in general when you said 'particular demographc', then in your original post you were basically saying that you've noticed that fraudsters tend to be responsible for scams. Good observation.

Statistically, it may be a matter of fact that one racial demographic or another tends to be asociated with a particular type of crime, but it serves no useful purpose to casually drop this into a conversation. Crimes are committed by criminals, and it's not equitable to tar a whole community with the same brush.

MOCAS, I only meant fraudsters in the part where I talked about how they would be hiding and sharing their ill gotten gains, I still meant what I said in the original post. Your point is taken re tarring communities with a brush but that also was not what I was doing.

I'm not saying that the majority of that community would commit that type of crime, but in this circumstance, that this type of crime was more likely to be committed by someone from that community. There's a difference, albeit subtle.

Hope this clears it up as my post wasn't meant as a veiled attack on any particular section of society (apart from crims obv) but an observation on the origin of these particular scams.

 

[MOCAŠ]

I'm not saying that the majority of that community would commit that type of crime, but in this circumstance, that this type of crime was more likely to be committed by someone from that community. There's a difference, albeit subtle.

I appreciate the difference, and the fact that you've taken the time to respond, but I still fail to see what purpose it serves to mention the association in this way. Presumably you were trying to make a point, but I for one wasn't quite getting it. Maybe that's just me.

 

[prprandall51]

Jeez, what a lot of waffle.

I personally have observed that insurance fraud seems to be a favourite of Asian criminals.

Not Asians in general. But Asian crimianls.

I have noticed also that drug-crime is a favourite of the West Indian criminals and that pointless, senseless shocking violence is the speciality of the English criminal.

I hope that everyone is now suitably offended and I trust I will be banned shortly.

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

In simple terms almost ALL of the criminal fraternity have no cares about the impact of their crime on their community, therefore much crime is perpetrated by those that originate outside said community.
(Maybe this is an extension of the adage don't mess on your own doorstep)

Often those that have strong foundations within a community have means and methods to avoid detection, using such terms as "fine upstanding member of the community" when it comes to defence in court cases, or simply relying on local knowledge - often it is said it's not what you know but who you know...

This is true no matter what country or community you're talking about.

Honestly, the media doesn't help in today's age when most of the time they can't bothered in reporting "Mr Brownsmith from Acacia Avenue was found guilty of _______", instead they'd rather go for the extremist sensationalism, "hundreds of immigrants from _________, caused chaos in ______ and are costing the British Taxpayer millions".

Bottom line of all of this is that some parts of any society would prefer to live outside the confines of local laws and customs, these people will never care about the impact of such, and will always fall back into the same routine because why should they care about how they're damaging people they have no investment of emotion in?

There is no solution to this, perhaps we should adopt this standpoint?
Judge Asks Doctors To Damage Criminal's Spine - Yahoo! News UK

 

[RobertoMercini]

BBC 1 tonight at 10-30 - all power to those office workers that photographed and reported one such group of these scammers. I'd happily give up my own time to catch this kind of thing