Episode 3 Claimed and Shamed

Insurance fraud in the UK is reaching epidemic levels,

and it's costing us billions of pounds a year.

Deliberate crashes, bogus personal injury claims, even fake deaths.

The fraudsters are risking more and more to make a quick killing

and every year it's adding up to £50 to your insurance bill.

Insurers are fighting back.

Armed with covert surveillance systems...

The equipment that we use has to be cutting edge,

it's as simple as that.

..sophisticated data analysis techniques...

This is connected to a bank account and a second mobile phone number.

..and a newly formed, dedicated police unit...

Police! Stand Back!

..they're catching the criminals red handed.

All those conmen, scammers and cheats on the fiddle

now they're caught in the act, and claimed and shamed.

Today, the Fraud Enforcement team confronts a gang

of suspected insurance cheats.

It's the police!

A debt-ridden dentist fakes his own death.

She appeared to upset, a few tears, but I didn't believe her.

And a footballer who claimed he couldn't play

had some unwanted spectators at his home ground.

He's walking towards the buildings to the right of the stadium.

Welcome to Doncaster, home of James Shikell.

James used to be a promising footballer,

with the possibility of a professional career ahead of him.

That was until 2002, when he was involved in a car crash...

..leaving James very badly injured.

Because the car he was in was uninsured,

the bill for James's injuries

had to be footed by the MIB, the Motor Insurers' Bureau.

The MIB is a not for profit organisation

funded by the insurance industry,

set up purely to provide a means of compensation

for victims of both uninsured and untraced driving.

James was not going to be a professional sportsman

but at least he had financial security.

The MIB had already paid £30,000 to the crocked footballer

with tens of thousands more to hopefully follow.

Over time,

James experienced a gradual improvement in his condition.

But in 2008, six years after the crash,

an outlandish request for a further £1.3 million

caused the MIB to look again.

Suddenly we were faced with a claim for accommodation.

He was saying he needed single story accommodation.

He was saying he needed large amounts of personal care

to look after him.

This didn't fit with the pattern of the injuries

and recovery that he'd been making up to that point.

This information was surprising to the MIB.

Wanting to know more, it called in some expert snoops.

If you want to spy on someone,

the Surveillance Group will get the job done.

It's got a team of highly-trained operatives who know how to

follow your every move.

We live in a surveillance society.

Fraudsters are aware that they might be placed under surveillance.

To that end we have to stay one step ahead of the game, ahead of them.

That means we have to tailor our methods accordingly

and the equipment we have to use has to be cutting edge.

It's as simple as that.

Ultimately, our task is to gain an objective slice of their lives,

so it's simply a case of turning up and maximising

the amount of footage that we get so others in the legal process

can form a good objective opinion of someone's capabilities.

-Entering the passenger side. Door closed.

-Roger.

Tim and his team were given the job of filming the local soccer star.

The client now passenger, back seat of a red Peugeot.

And one cold December afternoon it found

that despite suffering from difficulty concentrating...

The client is now walking towards the buildings to

the right of the stadium.

..severe fatigue, poor motivation, poor co-ordination...

Client now sited towards the changing rooms.

..and aching in his neck and ankles,

James Shikell was still capable of this.

The footage shows effectively James Shikell playing a game of football

in a normal manner, running from one end of the pitch to the other

and making minute decisions in micro seconds,

whether he should head the ball,

whether he should kick the ball, all those types of things.

And this was clearly a man who said that he needed

constant assistance from his father

and clearly his father wasn't there running beside him,

telling him to score, telling him to kick the ball,

telling him to head the ball.

So I think the footage really speaks volumes in this case.

Mr Shikell was playing football for Erdlington Rovers.

He had recently obtained a man of the match award,

he was captain of the side.

I guess he felt no-one cared,

no-one would kind of be monitoring his activity overall.

This kind of behaviour is not acceptable.

It's not acceptable to MIB, it's not acceptable to the insurance industry

and clearly the courts support that view by the extent of the sentences.

It's not OK to exaggerate,

it's not OK to gain an extra amount of money from an insurer,

it's still lying and when someone lies

it's attempting to defraud someone.

James was sentenced to 12 months for contempt of court

after submitting an exaggerated claim for £1.35 million.

His father, Robert Shikell,

also received a year's imprisonment for supporting his son's claim.

The money ultimately that MIB pay

and the cost of running MIB all comes from premium paying motorists.

It's yours and my premiums that are funding the claims that we pay.

A dodgy dentist comes back from the grave...

It takes a hard-hearted individual I believe to put his family through

what they've been put through.

..and a London cash-for-crash gang get busted.

And he's now associating with vehicle number two in the open.

In the fight against the growing problem of insurance fraud,

an elite police squad has come together to form IFED,

the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department.

Insurance fraud isn't a victimless crime.

£50 of each premium you pay each year goes to the fraudsters.

We have been set up to tackle that problem.

This dedicated team works tirelessly to bang up the crooks and conmen

getting rich off other people's money.

Police! Step back!

It's our intension to create a kind of fear for the fraudster.

There's every chance an IFED detective may come knocking

on their door to arrest them for committing an insurance fraud.

Police! Don't move! Stay where you are.

By April 2012, after only six months of operating

it had already busted 80 fraudsters.

Adding up to £12 million of fraud under investigation.

These people are criminals. These are nasty people.

They don't go out to work on a Monday morning like most people do.

Their work is submitting insurance fraud crimes.

It's a basic investigation into organised motor vehicle fraud.

It is four main targets today

and they basically incept insurance policies

on motor vehicles that they don't own.

Then that vehicle is involved in an accident,

either staged or entirely made up

and then they claim for recovery of the third party vehicle,

storage costs, hire cars and personal injury claims.

There's two main addresses we've got Section 8 warrants for. OK?

The group being targeted by IFED is thought to specialise

in a specific type of motor insurance fraud, crash-for-cash.

Crash-for-cash is a term given to collisions executed in order

to make money from motor insurance policies.

And it's big business.

There are an estimated 30,000 crash-for-cash incidents per year

on Britain's roads,

valued at at least £350 million,

adding an average of £44 to your motor insurance bill every year.

It's time for IFED to move in on the suspects.

There's quite a large number of people involved in fraud,

accepting insurance policies, being named as either third-party drivers,

claiming hire car costs, storage costs, personal injury.

I've identified four main suspects who we're looking to arrest today.

IFED's first destination

is a pair of heavily guarded neighbouring houses.

The buildings are smothered in CCTV cameras.

IFED hopes to search for evidence of fraud at the properties

but has no idea how many potential suspects

will be standing in its way.

HE KNOCKS ON DOOR

There's no sign of life from the house on the right,

but the team find the house on the left unlocked.

Hello! Police!

Inside, they discover a suspect with his pockets full of cash,

but no incriminating paperwork.

We've just found some money,

£1,000 in the pocket of one of the suspects.

Can I just leave that with you?

-If you come then.

-Where are your shoes?

So, who nicked him, Barry? You?

The other house has not been so easy to access,

but IFED has found a small open window.

He's in.

Police!

Hello! >

Open the door. Police. Good morning.

Good morning. We have a warrant to search this address.

Hello? City Of London Police.

We're executing a search, a search warrant.

Do you want to get yourself up?

Four startled occupants are turfed out of bed.

Do you want to jump up out of, jump up out of bed and we'll come

and speak to you downstairs? OK?

I'll explain exactly what's happening.

Right, all take a seat. Take a seat.

OK. We've got a warrant to search this address.

Yeah. OK? I'm just telling you what's happening.

We're going to search the address.

It's relation to conspiracy to defraud insurance companies.

OK, motor vehicle fraud.

I'm just telling you what we said...

The warrant related to motor vehicle fraud, OK?

So we're going to search this address. Understand?

First of all, you're under arrest for conspiracy to defraud.

You don't have to say anything but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention, when questioned,

which you later rely on in court.

Motor vehicle fraud.

You can, you... You can tell me in the interview, OK?

Yeah, shall we just sit him out the way for the time being?

IFED makes two arrests but the key suspect is nowhere to be seen.

So they start the search for the hard evidence

needed to get the convictions.

We're looking for items associated with motor insurance fraud

so computers, mobile phones...

..any documentation relating to insurance policies.

We'll take that, phone and charger. And this whole bedroom's free.

The search has only just begun

when there's a breakthrough in the hunt for the missing suspect.

-PHONE RINGS Is that your phone?

-No, no, this is it.

We'll never make it over there.

Could this be their man?

Can we come in? I'll just explain to you what's going on.

Are you burning the house down? SHE LAUGHS

Crash-for-cash gangs operate all over Britain.

Most chose a set area or even a regular stretch of road

on which to operate.

Simply slamming on their brakes in front of a victim

would attract suspicion.

So the crash gangs have involved a devious two-car tactic.

First, the gang chooses a victim.

Then they move their two cars into position in front of the target.

Gang car number one then slams on its brakes.

Gang car two reacts by braking hard

resulting in a rear-end shunt from the victim.

Gang car one then turns off at the next possible turning

pretending to be unaware of the crash.

One crash gang chose north-west London as their hunting ground...

..frequently crashing for cash on London's North Circular.

What the gang didn't count on was a dedicated unit from the Met Police

filming their every move.

They were a gang based up in north-west London

who were on a daily basis slamming on in front of vehicles

so that they could make claims

through various accident management companies,

and put in personal-injury claims.

The Met wanted the gang off the roads,

so it set about gathering evidence.

For a birds-eye view of the gang at work,

DC Eastick called in the help of the Met Police helicopter.

We used a helicopter to try and film the gang

causing these accidents because it's more graphic from the air.

When you see vehicles slamming on and the other vehicle driving off

and the other party of it, what we call a decoy vehicle,

it also demonstrates quite clearly to the jury what's going on.

Dispatched at the last minute,

the police helicopter just manages to capture the crash gang

as it springs its trap.

At the top of the screen, gang car one is about to be seen

breaking hard. Gang car two reacts,

forcing the victim in the white Transit van to smash into it.

Minutes later, the occupants of the two cars meet up.

The crash footage captured by the helicopter was not very clear.

DC Eastick and his team would need better evidence

to get the gang convicted.

Then, one fateful day in the summer of 2009,

they filmed the gang having a very busy day on north London's roads.

It's 12.40 on the 29th July 2009.

The police are tailing the gang.

Gang car one and two are setting up their latest victim for a smash.

This time,

they are foiled by the quick reactions of the intended victim.

Three hours later they come across the gang

after a reckless crash on a motorway slip road.

The innocent victim has accepted responsibility for the crash

and hands over his details.

The fraudsters, absorbed in fleecing their latest victim,

are completely unaware of the hazard they've created.

Still, the Met had not captured indisputable evidence

that these incidents were staged.

They had to prove that these cars were working as a team,

and that afternoon their patience was to be rewarded.

The two gang cars are observed filling up at a petrol station.

Then, the gang members do something that seals the case for the police.

Well, he's now associating with vehicle two and the occupant.

The high five really was mission accomplished.

That demonstrates that they had a mission for that day

and they accomplished that mission,

and that was to cause an accident.

When this went to court,

the video evidence that we obtained was so compelling

that they really had no choice but to plead guilty

at the earliest opportunity,

which resulted in one of them getting eight months imprisonment

and two of the others getting six months imprisonment.

Personally, I think they're outrageous.

It's costing me and every other motor policy holder

an extra £40 or £50.

If you're involved in a crash, take pictures of all the individuals,

take pictures of the damage to their vehicle,

not only your vehicle but their vehicle.

It's evidence later on that you can provide to your insurance company

that might just protect your no-claims bonus

and prove that this was a fraud.

Most insurance companies employ specialist fraud investigators

who can spot a suspicious claim from looking at

just a few pieces of paperwork,

meaning it's hard to elude them, even from beyond the grave.

Welcome to Barnstaple.

This peaceful Devonshire town used to be home to father of four,

Emmanouil Parisis.

I think Emmanouil Parisis was viewed as a pillar of the community.

As a dentist you're held in high regard obviously.

Earning a hefty £135,000 a year,

Mr Parisis should have lived a very comfortable life.

But tragically, in 2009,

during a trip to Jordan, he died in a car crash.

His grieving wife received £51,000 in insurance pay-outs

and was due to receive a further £1.8 million

from his life insurance policies, but first she had to wait.

Insurers will always check a claim of this size and nature.

So private investigator John Saunders

was called in to investigate.

If someone dies overseas, insurance companies come to us

asking for advice, documentation so forth.

And I think over the 25 years, I've worked in I think 74 countries,

I've been to, to investigate claims.

John started to look into the case

and straight away found inconsistencies.

The story was that they'd spent August in Greece on holiday

and his wife came back with the children at the end of August,

beginning of September because they were starting school

and Emmanouil apparently had then taken his mother from Greece

to see a heart specialist in Jordan, in Amman.

It seemed strange that he wanted to go all the way to Amman

to see a heart specialist,

when I'm sure there were very good heart specialists in Athens.

After a meeting with Mrs Parisis,

John's suspicions were raised even further.

When I interviewed the wife she appeared to be upset,

a few tears, but I didn't believe her.

She didn't have sufficient knowledge.

Had her husband died as claimed,

I'd have expected her to have more information

about where he was buried,

who arranged the burial, who he was with at the time,

which hospital he died in,

but it was clear to me she hadn't prepared herself for such questions

and didn't know the answers, yet they were meant to be very close.

John had a hunch but no evidence.

So he jetted off to Greece to check out the paperwork.

But everything looked above board.

So he moved on to the scene of the crash, Jordan,

where he made some important discoveries.

The death registration certificate was a fake document,

there was no record at the cemetery of any burial

and then my visit to the Greek embassy there,

where it appeared they'd be told all about the death

by I think it was Costas, a lawyer.

When we looked, when the embassy looked at the documents

and found that the lawyer had a Hotmail address

I thought it was rather unusual for a law firm to have a Hotmail address

and it was pretty clear to me the lawyer didn't exist.

It was Emmanouil Parisis taking on the role of the lawyer.

So by that time we had more than sufficient evidence

to show that he had not died.

John knew Mr Parisis was alive but had no idea where he was hiding.

So he flew back to England and handed his evidence to the police.

The job of finding the deceptive dentist was given to

DI Mike West of the Devon And Cornwall Police.

I knew that it was going to be complex

and I knew that the inquiry needed to be focussed.

Parisis had stayed in Greece, we believe,

waiting for the £1.8 to roll in, but when that didn't happen,

and certainly didn't happen any time soon, he had to do something,

he had a wife and four children in the UK to support.

A major breakthrough in the case occurred around nine months

after the fake death, when they received a tip off

that Parisis had resurfaced in Scotland,

immediately alerting DI Mike West.

We identified the fact that Parisis was living under the name

of Neil McLaren and he was operating as a dentist

within a surgery in Peterhead, within the Grampian area of Scotland.

After almost a year-long manhunt, the trail had come to an end.

DI Mike West closed in on the resurrected dentist.

Parisis was arrested in the company of other family members.

He certainly showed some surprise when we arrived at his doorstep.

We identified a fraud kit which enabled him

to fake his identity. It included official looking stamps,

documentation from various universities and seats of learning.

He was obviously prepared for this

and living the lie for a significant period of time.

For three months Mr and Mrs Parisis had left their children

thinking they had lost their dad.

It takes a hard-hearted individual I believe to put his family through

what they've been put through,

and the psychological damage can't be underestimated.

For her part, Mrs Parisis was sentenced to 16 weeks.

Mr Parisis was jailed for five years on fraud charges

and struck off the General Dental Council's Register.

His sentence was later reduced to three years.

The Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, IFED,

is executing a raid at the first of three addresses.

It suspects some occupants are linked to a crash-for-cash ring.

The officers have already made two arrests.

They've been bagging evidence at the raid properties

for just under an hour,

and are trying to track down their outstanding suspect.

Just something that may be of interest.

There's various mobile phones ringing but one of them

potentially has the name of the outstanding suspect coming up.

-Has it?

-Yeah. There is one outstanding, isn't there?

Yeah, does it keep coming up, his number, name, does it?

Yes, I believe so, it's a variation of the name.

Good morning. This is Sean Corrigan. How are you doing?

Great. I've got three body checks, please, if you want the details.

The three men being held downstairs are not believed to be fraudsters,

but stored in one of their mobile phones

is the number of the missing suspect.

-Are these your phones?

-Yeah.

I think the guy who we're trying to arrest is ringing them.

Can you get his number up?

IFED gets access to the suspect's number.

Sir, it's PC Corrigan from the police station. Are you all right?

The sooner we speak to you, the better.

How long do you reckon you'll be?

About half an hour.

Can you make it any sooner?

You'll try. OK.

Upstairs, the evidence is mounting.

Claimant letters. And the certificate of motor insurance!

"Sorry to hear that you've been involved in a road-traffic accident

"and have sustained injuries."

Yes, this is exactly what we've been looking for.

You know, you'd have expected someone involved in this

kind of activity to keep a stash of documentation somewhere.

And it looks as though we may have found it.

The outstanding suspect has, predictably, not shown up.

With the evidence in the bag,

the team follows a lead to a third property.

You go in the back, mate, yeah?

Yeah, I'm from the City Of London Police.

May I just come in. I'll just speak to you about what we're doing.

Basically, we've got a warrant for this address.

OK? Let me come in and I'll explain to you, all right?

-There's something burning.

-Are you all right?

You're burning the house down. SHE LAUGHS

Can we come in? I'll just explain to you what's going on.

-Is if off?

-Everything's sorted, yeah.

DCI Dave Wood is very interested in the burnt paper

in the kitchen and toilet.

Well, it appeared from the time that it took us to travel

from the previous search warrant addresses to here,

which is a short journey,

we're only talking about seven or eight minutes, in that time,

I'm guessing communication has been passed into this premises

where the lady who has opened the door to us, eventually,

has burnt some evidence.

Despite the smoke screen, the IFED officers still find

an armful of evidence, and decide to arrest the suspect they came for.

You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court.

-Anything you do say will be given in evidence. Do you understand?

-Yeah.

One suspect was later charged and handed a year's community order

and had to pay court costs.

The other suspects were released without charge.