The Great Car Crash Con

Now the inside story on how police uncovered the biggest car insurance

fraud in the UK. This call is about to trigger an

investigation into one of the biggest frauds Wales has ever seen.

Gwent Police got a phone call to the effect that the stolen Megane was in

a garage. They already suspected that this garage was that the centre

of the trade in stolen vehicles. Uniformed colleagues responded to

the information on the premises were locked in the evenings so they asked

for the key-holder to come along. The shutters will put up and inside

was the Megane, completely stripped. My colleagues responded accordingly

and the owner was arrested. After the arrest things moved fast and the

garage was searched for three days identifying 20 stolen vehicles, all

that remained of many of them with a tax discs. Yet police were about to

make an even more important discovery. One of the search

officers was going through paperwork, comes over, could you

have a look at this? On this piece of paperwork words to the effect,

what to say to the insurance company. At that time there was a

lot of interest in crash for cash and false insurance claims. We

thought, wait a minute, we've got a body shop with cars in all sorts of

states, I want every piece of paper that there is, out. Something else

caught their eye and it was to prove the gang's and doing. A hard drive

with 21 days of footage from the garage's four security cameras. The

gang had been caught on their own CCTV and the police had got to it

before they had had had time to wipe it.

They put it up for security purposes but they were worried about damage

to their property and other criminals possibly breaking

Clever if you stay under the radar but extremely stupid if you film

Four years later, police brought to book families who were involved

Byron Yandell, co-owner of the garage.

And there was another family, the Callaghans.

Brothers Patrick and Anthony and his partner, Jennifer Cosh.

What started with a phone call about a stolen card

What started with a phone call about a stolen car

and into an investigation involving almost 90 suspects.

Police realised it's more than car theft.

Here is Sara Morris working particularly with social

This man has the onerous task of dealing with CCTV.

Finally, Jon Parkinson speaking to witnesses and gathering evidence

from insurance companies and identifying the people we need

DC Sara Morris look for clues through social media.

Police suspected there were links between the people who claim

their cars had been crashed but she had to prove it.

In all of these collisions, they are all connected.

They are not just members of the public, they are all

connected, you look to the garage or through the Yandell family

They denied all knowledge of others' involved in the collisions

but they had pictures on Facebook for all the world to see,

showing exactly how well they all knew each other.

So, what are the chances in the crashing into

Quite high if you are a Yandell or a Callaghan.

The investigation is uncovering an extraordinary number of suspects.

The police concentrated on 90 who appear to have made a false

It cost the industry ?340 million last year.

Vehicles have been driven into each other so there is damage

They haven't been driven into each other at the time,

date and place stated and the people within them were not within them.

A variety of different people say that they were in the vehicle,

injured during that collision and make a substantial amount

of money on the back end of doing so.

Crash investigator PC Chris Barnard was brought into the Operation Dino

By crashing cars, he said he can work out how damage

Those unique marks are left on new vehicle so,

what was happening at a particular time is written into

It is just a question of reading that damage and playing the events

He was soon to prove that hardly any of the Easifix collisions

Of the 70 fraudulent collisions police investigated,

What happened in this car park in Caerphilly four years ago,

Next thing I knew, she was actually on my bonnet, she had reversed back.

But she had my address, I had her address and insurance details.

I advised her to call the police, because, just in case thing

Best let the police know so that the police

What Jane did not know yet, at home that night, was that she had

got herself mixed up with the Easifix gang.

And her problems were only just beginning.

But the family had orchestrated dozens more claims by farming

at collisions to the Callaghans and at least 19 friends and relatives.

This injunction here now, members of the family allegedly had collisions

at times of day where traffic congestion would have been very very

busy had been an accident but we had no reports of that. Police suspect

none of the crashes happened there at all. And it was the next bit of

CCTV footage that was the clincher. Giving the police the clearest

evidence yet the gang was smashing up cars themselves. The Land Rover

he allegedly had a collision with is coming into shot. Outside the front

of Easifix. According to the claims, Land Rover collided with a silver

BMW driven his nephew, Gavin. Two other people claimed for personal

injury, alleged passengers Dean and Florence. Collisions expert Chris

God was not shown any CCTV so was not influenced by the assessment.

The BMW was stationary because of the marks on the side of the door.

We don't know what struck the Land Rover. Seven minutes past five,

Byron is driving the vehicle which is completely intact, no damage at

all being caused but allegedly written off at 10:30am. Again, here

we have a host of people around this vehicle, Anthony Callaghan is

driving now. Patrick Callaghan is looking on. Gavin is allegedly

involved in the collision, Adam and Byron. It has been placed on a blind

spot by Byron. The Land Rover is coming into shot. Outside the front

of Easifix. Byron is driving it. You can see Patrick Callaghan on his

phone and Anthony is there. If you look at Gavin's reaction, he has

seen something of what he has seen is the Land Rover being driven into

the BMW. He looks completely undamaged, the Land Rover driven

back into the back of the yard. It has caused damage to the BMW, we

never see the BMW on the CCTV again. The next time any of us see footage

of that it is inside the yard and we do a search. Two days later, and

because the Land Rover has stood up so well to punishment, the gang

decides to have another go with a forklift truck. The Land Rover is

outside will be driven by Ashley Morris into the rear of that to

damage it further. The hazard lights have come on. More damage now to the

front of that, one of the lights has come off. To add more damage, Byron

attacks it with a hammer. It is amusing everybody involved and Byron

himself. They then set off the air bags. This is often enough to write

the vehicle off. If the airbags have gone off, you can ramp up how fast

you were going there for how injured you are going to be which then could

have some sway in how much personal injury you get. The gang were caught

red-handed. They filmed themselves doing it! It was just the evidence

police needed. And there was more... This vehicle damage was invented but

so too with a personal injuries. Time for a fictitious passenger to

get on the phone to the insurance company.

The caller is Gavin and Byron's grandmother. She is pretending to be

a passenger in the Land Rover. She's been coached. You can hear the

sun in the background telling her what to say.

If you listen to the recording of Florence it brought a few laughs

from the office initially to listen to her and realise what are you

doing question what she did not know whether damage had been caused.

When you look back on reflection and we have said as a team why did they

get her involved question what she is their grandmother. It turns out

she has got medical issues and they should never have got her involved.

She is an elderly lady, 70, ill-health but they used her and

that was Byron's own grandmother. Admiral insurance paid Florence as

thousands pounds for her made up injury adding 11,000 more for cars

the gang claimed were written off and insurance company paid out more

than 12,000. Everything seemed clear cut. He was responsible for the

accident having pulled out into the path of the vehicle. Did your claim

handler suspect anything? At that stage, no, absolutely nothing. It

went through the processes and all though we have a robust system

sitting behind the phone calls with predictive system to identify the

fraudulent claims, on this occasion it did not flag there was an issue

with this incident. If insurance companies did more to prevent fraud,

perhaps there would be fewer victims like Jane. Following the accident in

a supermarket car park where a range Rover reversed into her course, she

thought the insurance company would sort it out. It would all be plain

sailing, especially as she was in the driver at fault. Also thought. A

week or so later I received them from their solicitors basically a

summons saying I was being accused of undue care and attention, they

were making claims for injury to her, her mother and the daughter.

I was in the car park and a woman drove into the back of me. Was there

any witnesses? Yes,... Three weeks down the line, this so-called

witness turns up out of the blue saying he had witnessed everything

that had happened and yes, I had driven around the car park so fast

that I had hit her in the back and shunted her forward. The fraud

worked, Barwood got ?4000 for personal injury as did her mother

Maureen. She got ?1000 damage for the baby. Neither had been in the

car. The case cost the insurers ?16,000, Barwood also exaggerated

the damage to her range Rover. They said they will seek to make a full

recovery of their costs from the third parties involved. After two

years of intensive evidence gathering, police are now moving on

the wider network. It may harm your defence if you later rely on in

court... A busy day today, this is another claim put before the CPS for

them to decide upon. They'll be asked how they went about the claim

and give an account if they wish. This lady is under arrest. Rhian

Davies pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud. Police have arrested 85

suspects and there are more to come. As the prospect of a big trial grew

nearer, police worked fast to establish accurate timelines for the

claims history and how they were connected. Each collision, there was

vast amounts of money to be made. By looking at the social media networks

and other aspects of their life it became quite significant that the

collisions were occurring more frequently when there was a major

event coming up in a persons life such as a wedding in April 20 ten.

Everyone looked fit and well and happy, surprising because every day

before Peter and Michelle Ford transit was involved in a collision

in a car supposedly in Blackwood. Michelle was allegedly so seriously

injured she took to her bed for two days. We got images shown she was at

the wedding smiling happily. And there's more. Two weeks later, Peter

and Michelle went on a cruise, and all-round crews to Egypt and Turkey.

The police discovered they paid ?1900 for the holiday. As it

happens, it was the exact same amount Michelle won in damages for

her collision which never happened. After years of police

investigations, the trial of the ringleaders finally begins. They are

accused of conspiracy to defraud and the first of 90 alleged members of

the network to go to court. With CCTV, the jury can see what the gang

were up to. As weeks progressed, more and more of the evidence being

presented come you could see the look of concern. What's changed the

case completely was when Rachel and Byron decided they would stand in

the box and give evidence. The QC then started cross-examining them

and it was embarrassing to watch. He tied them up in knots. Byron and

Peter each got six years, Rachel five years, Gavin and Jennifer got

three years. Anthony Callaghan 27 months and his brother Patrick got

24 months suspended. Michelle who took to a wheelchair at certain

times during the trial got two years. Evidence raised questions

about how easy it seems to be to dupe the insurance industry. Aviva

was one of the worst affected by the scam. One crash alone costs ?30,000

and there were five more. The good news is that we have invested

significantly in the detection of organised fraud since then and we

repudiated fraudulent claims worth millions last year. The root causes

there is too much easy cash and too much financial incentive and profit

in the system. The UK government has brought in legislation banning

referral fees for personal injury claims and reducing the money

lawyers can make. It is tightened up on the medical reporting system and

has announced they will be no compensation for minor whiplash

claims. By now, nearly all of the 87 suspects were found guilty or

admitted involvement in the scam. The case against Florence Phillips,

Gavin and Byron's grandmother was dropped because of bad health.

Stephanie Barwood pleaded guilty and her victim was at the Crown Court to

watch her being sentenced. I could not believe the look on Stephanie

Barwood's face. She was so nonchalantly to she thought she

would get away with it. And then she was sentenced and her face dropped.

Barwood was sentenced to three years in prison. A partner Lee Evans got

33 months. The man who lied about being a witness to the crash got

three years and three months for that and other fraudulent claims.

Police think the scam might have cost insurers up to ?2 million. They

got greedy. Whereas if they did one of two accidents, couple of months,

it was in three for a month and it was she agreed the got caught. It

took four years to investigate and bring to book the friends and

families by which time Detective Sergeant Andy Kalam had retired.

Very very pleasing. They were found guilty. It was pleasing with the

sentences as well. It meant the last couple of years of my service as a

police officer were not in vain. Since the trials we have led

Michelle and Peter were also inducted for benefit fraud. It is

alleged they falsely claimed nearly ?70,000 for care and mobility

allowances between. Get a good shot. Make sure it's a good one. The case

was pursued because they were going to prison anyway. One of the biggest

insurance frauds Wales has ever seen.