PERSONAL INJURY ARTICLE

Criminal Gang Convicted Over False Car Crash Claims

A gang of six criminals who made nearly £2 million from fraudulent car crash claims have been convicted at Southwark County Court. The gang comprised Mohammed Samsul Haque, Rosul Yusuf, Shalim Miah, Nazruislam Rahman, Noveed Akthtar and Halimur Rashid.

The Court heard that the gang faked over 120 ‘cash for crash’ scams to make £1.17 million for themselves and causing insurance companies to pay out a total of £1.91 million, over a period of three years.

The gang staged crashes in their business premises prior to submitting claims to insurance companies for services that were not provided. The claims were for recovery storage and replacement hire vehicles.

The criminal syndicate was masterminded by Samsul Haque, whom prosecutor David Aaronberg QC described as “up to his ears in motor insurance fraud”.

Mr Haque set up an accident claim management company in Tottenham, known as Motor Alliance in order to handle fraudulent claims. The company combined accident claim management with services such as storage facilities and the hire of replacement vehicles whilst the claim was being settled.

The fraudulent claims mainly involved a low and a high value car, where the low value car was always 'at fault'. Motor Alliance purported to act for the third party 'driver' whose expensive vehicle had been hit by an insured policyholder who would admit liability.

A claim would be made against the insurance of the cheaper vehicle enabling the fraudsters to make as much cash from the insurance claim as possible. This included costs for repair of the damaged vehicle and its storage as well as often tens of thousands of pounds for a bogus courtesy car.

The courtesy car was often conveniently provided from the company's stock of high value hire vehicles, such as Mercedes, BMWs and Jaguars, at a charge to the insurance company of up to £350 a day.

Police began to unravel the group's activities after a tip off from an insurance company who had noticed a pattern of irregularities in submitted claims.

During the investigation it became clear that the same individuals were involved in separate claims and some vehicles were used in multiple claims. When dealing with insurance companies Samsul Haque would use the alias Samuel Hague and on occasions the same hire car was shown as hired out to two or three different clients at the same time.

The fraudsters often roped in other people to provide their driving licence details, to substantiate the claims and in return they were offered modest sums of money and duped into believing there was little or no risk involved.

Police also unearthed reports of a 'crashing party' inside a garage at the Motor Alliance premises where Yusuf, Miah, Haque and Rashid had some food and drink before Haque and Yusuf directed those present to drive low value cars into high value cars, consistent with the false claims. Typically they would obtain low value cars from people they knew who wanted to get rid of them. High value cars came from either their own stock or were on occasions specifically bought for the purpose.

After each crash Haque and Yusuf would inspect the cars and if the damage was deemed insufficient, cause more damage using baseball bats.

The gang is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in October.

The real victims in cases such as this are innocent motorists who are faced with increased premiums from insurers to cover the cost of these fraudulent claims.

For further information in relation to personal injury claims please contact us on 0113 2449931 or email info@levisolicitors.co.uk