Episode 2 Claimed and Shamed


Episode 2

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Insurance fraud in the UK is reaching epidemic levels

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

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MAN: Whoo!

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Deliberate crashes, bogus personal injury claims,

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even phantom pets.

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

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

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Insurers are fighting back.

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Armed with covert surveillance systems...

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The subject is out the vehicle.

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..sophisticated data analysis techniques...

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..and highly skilled dedicated police units...

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

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..they're catching the criminals red-handed.

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All those con men, scammers and cheats on the fiddle,

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

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It's man versus the food aisle

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as a trip leads to a huge personal injury claim.

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There is a more sinister underlying background to this.

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A specialist fraud-busting force are on the hunt

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for two men suspected of defrauding a charity.

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This particular case is quite unpleasant.

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And a 13-tonne fire truck is blamed for wrecking a car.

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Personally, I think it's a disgrace. It's sickening.

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Supermarket shopping - you know what it's like.

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So many choices. Mayonnaise... No, bread. Where are the peaches?

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Ah, half-price toothpaste!

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But watch your step.

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Before you know it, you've tripped over the debris left on the floor by a careless shelf stacker.

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This is a supermarket in Northern Ireland.

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The man on the floor, Daniel Braniff, looks to be

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in a lot of pain.

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That's because he's just taken a hard fall in this food aisle.

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The culprit - some of this.

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The allegation was that he fell over some plastic banding in the shop.

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What had started out as a trip to the supermarket

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was now going to end up as a visit to A&E.

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He went to the hospital

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and sought treatment for this soft tissue injury

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to his left side.

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With an injury that could potentially hinder him for months,

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Daniel Braniff decided to make a claim against the supermarket.

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Mr Braniff brought the claim to our attention

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the day after the alleged incident.

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Slipping in a supermarket is not uncommon

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and it's why supermarkets pay a lot of attention

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to ensuring that their aisles are clean and clear.

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It seemed the supermarket Braniff had been shopping in

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hadn't been so diligent with its tidiness.

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It was looking like a potentially costly mistake.

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Daniel Braniff submitted a £12,000 injury claim against it

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and he had a piece of physical evidence to support his claim

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in the form of the plastic strap

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which he'd scooped up after the accident.

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Solid evidence or not, the claim would have to be thoroughly checked.

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The expert handlers at the insurance company dealing with the case

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set about their work.

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Very soon, alarm bells were ringing.

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The insurance company felt that this claim needed a closer look.

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They requested to see the CCTV footage from the supermarket

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at the time of the incident.

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In the footage, you'll see Mr Braniff talking on his mobile phone

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and walking around the store.

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All fairly innocuous.

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But when Daniel Braniff finishes his phone call,

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his actions take a bizarre twist.

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When we first saw the video containing Mr Braniff's accident,

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frankly, we couldn't believe that he had the effrontery

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to make a claim for this.

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That's because the footage does not reveal

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Daniel Braniff innocently walking into the plastic hazard in front of him,

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as his claim would have you believe.

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Instead, it shows this -

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Braniff, fully aware of the plastic strapping on the floor,

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executing an extremely unconvincing trip.

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There's no sophistication to this attempted fraud at all.

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It is really quite comical.

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The whole farce begins 40 seconds before the trip.

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The CCTV footage shows Braniff exiting the aisle,

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at which point he treads on the packaging.

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Instantly he puts his devious plan into action.

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It's quite clear that in the video,

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he carefully tries to manoeuvre

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a piece of plastic banding around his foot,

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and when he's quite comfortable that nobody is looking,

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he then falls over.

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We immediately decided not to pay this claim

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and took Mr Braniff to the Police Service of Northern Ireland,

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where we alleged that he had attempted to defraud us

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and, ultimately, the supermarket.

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Appearing in court, Daniel Braniff pleaded guilty

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and was sentenced to four months in custody suspended for three years

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and fined £250.

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When we saw the footage, it was one of those that drew people around to look at it.

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But there is a more sinister, underlying background to this

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because ultimately, this person is making

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a substantial claim for damages against the supermarket

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and, ultimately, the insurer,

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and it is clear, out and out fraud.

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Any wannabe fraudsters should tread very carefully.

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In the next few months, a register of convicted fraudsters is being rolled out.

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Accessible to every major insurance company in Britain,

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anyone on the list might find it a lot harder to get cheap insurance.

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People should think again before they get tempted to do this

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because the consequences are, they will get prosecuted

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and their name will be put on the insurance fraud register,

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which will impact them in the future.

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Insurance fraud is on the rise

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and if you have insurance of any kind, you're footing the bill.

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But the fraudsters had better watch their backs.

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IFED is a 35-strong unit

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that works tirelessly to hunt down and prosecute insurance fraudsters,

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wherever they might be throughout England and Wales.

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Through a combination of investigation, industry connections

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and the element of surprise...

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they've made over 300 arrests

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and stopped millions of pounds from going to the criminals,

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money which ultimately goes back in our pockets.

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It's highly likely now, if you commit any insurance fraud,

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you will get caught.

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It's 6am and two IFED teams are on the road.

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The two teams are 90 miles apart

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but both heading to raid locations linked to a single bank account.

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Head of IFED, DCI David Wood, is attending the operation.

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We're on our way to our suspect's address

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and there's another car with two officers

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that are going to meet us nearby.

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This particular case is quite unpleasant

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because the victims are actually a children's charity.

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The charity has had its bank account details stolen.

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Whoever stole them is now using the account to purchase motor vehicle insurance.

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Despite living in different cities,

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the two men being targeted by IFED today

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are both suspected of using the same charity bank account details.

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It's particularly unpleasant. However, we must remain professional.

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DCI Wood's team arrive at the raid location at 6:15.

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We're never exactly sure who's going to be there when we get there

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but this guy should be there with his family

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but we don't know, so we've got to be on our toes.

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Let's see who's here.

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That's the IFED knock on the door.

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Hi. We're from the City of London Police.

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OK, I'm looking...

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The man who has opened the door is not the suspect.

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-OK.

-And I believe that he resides here.

-Yes.

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Is he around at home?

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DCI Woods' suspicions are confirmed.

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The suspect does live at the property

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but, despite it being 6:20am, he's not in.

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We made contact with him via telephone

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and it's hoped that we're going to meet him very shortly.

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He won't give us his current location.

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However, we're keen to speak to him

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and we're hoping that he's going to be with us -

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it's now 25 past six - by eight o'clock.

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We'll be speaking to him, fingers crossed.

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But now we're in his hands a little bit

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because we don't know exactly where he is.

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90 miles away, the other IFED team is closing in on its raid address.

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We're all travelling now in convoy to the address

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where we hope to find our suspect.

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We're just going to be knocking on the address here...

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KNOCKING ..where we expect the suspect to be.

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The suspect in this address is also under investigation

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for purchasing insurance using the same stolen details

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of the same charity bank account.

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Just to make sure nobody else is here.

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The team are just checking upstairs to see if anybody else is upstairs

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and to see if our suspect's here.

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What we're here for today is a enquiry in relation to an insurance policy

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which was taken out with fraudulent bank details.

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We don't believe that the person who took that policy out,

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-the car was registered to you, it was your vehicle...

-Yeah.

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..taken out over the internet, but that person didn't have permission to use the bank details

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-to take out that policy, OK?

-Yeah.

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I believe that you're responsible for that

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and as such, I'm arresting you for Fraud by false representation.

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You do not have to say anything

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but it may harm your defence if you do not mention under questioning

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something which you later rely on in court.

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Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

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IFED is closing in on its target.

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The man on the left is very angry and with good reason.

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He's just had a very frightening experience.

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He was in the passenger seat of the black car

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when a fire engine smashed into it.

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He claimed that we hit his vehicle with sufficient force

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to actually lift it up off the ground,

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push it towards the pumps on the station forecourt

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and as a result of that heavy collision,

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caused him whiplash injuries.

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A fire engine is not the kind of vehicle you want to tangle with.

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The average fire engine is 7m long, 2.5m wide

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and weighs in at a hefty 13 tonnes.

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It's easy to understand how a behemoth like this

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could wreck a car and damage a neck in one swipe.

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Immediately after the crash, two men came over to our vehicle.

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Our driver and the officer in charge of the vehicle have got out,

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had a word with them, had a look at the damage to their vehicle

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and the minor damage to our vehicle,

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exchanged all their insurance details

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and then we basically got back on the fire engine and left the scene.

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The claimant's whiplash wasn't going away

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and there were further complications to come.

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He claimed injury to his neck, his shoulders,

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which were quite severe for the first two months.

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They lasted seven months in total.

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He also claimed he'd suffered psychiatric injury

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and had flashbacks for three to four weeks

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and he was anxious driving his vehicle for a total period of four months.

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The severely inconvenienced crash victim decided to make a claim

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against the Greater Manchester fire brigade.

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That claim was valued at about £10,000,

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taking into account his damages, his own solicitor's costs

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and the cost to the Greater Manchester Fire Service.

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It was an annoying situation for the Greater Manchester Fire Brigade.

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Because it self-insures, the £10,000 was going to have to come out of its own pocket.

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This isn't something whereby the insurers are being affected by it.

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It's actually the public organisation that's being affected by it

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and any kind of money that goes out of the organisation without good cause

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will have an impact, ultimately, on front-line services.

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Before the £10,000 could be paid out,

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as standard, the Greater Manchester Fire Service needed to check

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their own incident report against the claim.

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There were so many inconsistencies with the claim

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which caused us to look at it in detail.

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The fire engine suffered minor cosmetic damage to the handle of the locker

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and the front indicator.

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The fire-fighters hardly noticed the incident at all.

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They only became aware of it when they heard a car horn.

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Suddenly, the brakes were put on the claim.

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The fire crew's version of events were in stark contrast

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to the claimant's description of being in a car that was thrown in the air.

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The fire brigade, wanting to know more, decided to roll out some technology.

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The cameras that are on board, there is one pointing in every direction.

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There's one in the front cab, there's one on either side

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and then there's one at roof level on the rear of the vehicle.

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Luckily, one of the cameras had a clear view of the garage forecourt.

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Everyone was about to find out

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what happened on the day of the collision.

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The garage forecourt was quite busy on that night.

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There was also a car wash that wasn't that far away

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from where the actual vehicle, our vehicle and their vehicle, was parked.

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So then when our fire engine came to drive away from the pumps,

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it was a really tight turn.

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And here is the video footage.

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Just as the claimant reported,

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the fire engine rams into the front of the parked car,

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sending it and its occupant flying towards one of the petrol pumps.

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Hang on - did I just miss that?

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No. The car doesn't move at all.

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The CCTV footage showed the fire engine moving off very slowly,

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turning across the front of the claimant's vehicle

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and it shows the touching of the vehicles.

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You can see from the CCTV footage

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that the vehicle moves hardly, if at all.

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The collision wasn't dangerous in any way.

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From the CCTV footage, this was a really low-speed, minor collision

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and the estimate is that we were doing less than 5mph.

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Flying cars, whiplash and psychological damage -

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all a lie.

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The whole claim from the car passenger was

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an opportunistic attempt at fraud.

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The outcome of this case was, once we disclosed the CCTV footage,

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the claimant realised the game was over

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and he quickly discontinued the claim

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before he got into more serious trouble.

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Unfortunately, he had to repay nearly £6,000 of legal costs

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to the defendant.

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He put himself at risk of a criminal prosecution

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and he was reported in the local newspaper,

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the Manchester Evening News.

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Personally, I think it's a disgrace. It's sickening.

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These people put their lives at risk every hour of the day,

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protecting us, our families, our children, our property

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and this how they're repaid by some sectors of society.

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It's disgraceful. Unbelievable.

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I'd say to anybody who's thinking about making any kind of claim like this,

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don't do it.

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We will investigate every claim that is made

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and certainly, every one of our vehicles has CCTV cameras

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which point in every direction,

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so we will find out that it's a fraudulent claim.

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On Britain's busy roads, there are thousands of collisions every day.

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If you're involved in one,

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you might want some professional help processing your claim.

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Who do you turn to?

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If you've had a non-fault claim

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you might go to a claims management company after the accident

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for them to help you pursue your claim against the insurance company.

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A claims management company will help you with the complex process

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of paperwork, medical examinations, vehicle repair

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and temporary vehicle hire.

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They sound like the white knights of the road,

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there when you really need them.

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That might be true of most of them but it turns out,

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a growing number of claims management companies are committing insurance fraud.

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Fraudulent claims management companies use

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a variety of different techniques to commit fraud

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and one of their methods is very dangerous -

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the induced accident.

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So this is where a gang of criminals will take a vehicle

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out onto a public road, they'll pay somebody to drive that car

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and induce accidents.

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They're effectively paying drivers to cause accidents on public roads.

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After tricking an innocent person into crashing into one of their paid drivers,

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the fraudulent claims management company will then deal with the claim

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that results from the induced collision.

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It's a big earner for the fraudsters.

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Crash for cash scams cost the industry nearly £400 million a year.

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That equates to a lot of money to all of us on our premiums.

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One claims management company, Kami Claims,

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operating out of north London,

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was a big fan of the induced accident.

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And if you were a responsible car owner with insurance,

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you were a potential crash target for the crooked Kami Claims.

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In order for the frauds that Kami Claims were committing to succeed,

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they required innocent members of the public to be the victims of their scams,

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so they were looking for people that were insured,

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people that were on the school run,

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people that were innocent members of the public, had paid their premium,

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so they could then make a fraudulent claim on their policies.

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They had been getting away with it for years,

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generating millions of pounds' worth of fraudulent claims in the process.

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Things were looking good for the north London business

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but it wasn't going to last.

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Ten miles across town in west London,

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a powerful enemy had clocked the fraudulent claims management company

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and was closing in.

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In the summer of 2012, DI Hindmarsh and his unit

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were in the final stages of an investigation into Kami Claims.

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We received information that a particular claims management company

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operating out of north London

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were involved in setting up induced collisions

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and then dealing with the claims

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and, obviously, reaping the rewards of the financial benefit.

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Strengthening their position, the Met Traffic Unit has many allies

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in the world of insurance.

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One of them is the Insurance Fraud Bureau.

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It has access to information

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about nearly every insurance policy in the country.

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That amount of information gives you a serious advantage

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when tackling fraudsters.

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A key part of the role of the IFB is to find the trends and patterns

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that are invisible to other parts of the industry.

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And very quickly, a pattern emerged.

0:20:310:20:34

And when we started to look at

0:20:340:20:36

the claims that were connected to Kami Claims,

0:20:360:20:38

there were a suspicious number of similarities

0:20:380:20:41

between all the accidents

0:20:410:20:43

and if you had a genuine claims management company,

0:20:430:20:45

you'd expect them to deal with a variety of different types of claims.

0:20:450:20:49

The Met Traffic Unit and the IFB were closing in.

0:20:500:20:53

And it seemed that Kami Claims' penchant for causing crashes

0:20:540:20:57

could be their downfall.

0:20:570:20:59

Kami Claims used similar methods for all the claims they pursued.

0:20:590:21:03

They were induced accidents and they were all in the London area

0:21:030:21:07

and the accidents that were taking place were

0:21:070:21:09

commonly on roundabouts or slip roads.

0:21:090:21:11

The evidence was stacked against

0:21:130:21:15

the still-active fraudulent claims management company.

0:21:150:21:18

DI Hindmarsh was ready to pounce.

0:21:180:21:20

In the summer of 2012, we filmed the Met Traffic Unit

0:21:240:21:27

as they brought down the fraudulent Kami Claims.

0:21:270:21:30

They were an organised criminal gang that needed to be stopped.

0:21:300:21:33

Once we were happy we'd looked at all of the evidence that we had,

0:21:330:21:36

we took the steps to obtain a number of search warrants.

0:21:360:21:40

I'm outside the company now.

0:21:400:21:42

On the day of the raids, we did three search warrants,

0:21:420:21:46

one on the claims management company,

0:21:460:21:48

which resulted in some cash and some fraudulent documents being recovered.

0:21:480:21:52

This was one of the biggest fraudulent claims management companies ever investigated.

0:21:540:21:58

The evidence trail continued.

0:21:580:22:00

We then went to the address

0:22:000:22:03

of one of the claims management company owners.

0:22:030:22:06

It's the police. Can you open up, please?

0:22:060:22:08

Needing more evidence, the Met Traffic Unit was very keen

0:22:080:22:11

to gain entry to the flat.

0:22:110:22:12

We seized a number of documents from that address.

0:22:170:22:20

There was a great deal of paperwork seized.

0:22:200:22:23

I think it related to somewhere in the region of 250 claims

0:22:230:22:27

that they were currently dealing with on behalf of, erm, customers.

0:22:270:22:33

DI Hindmarsh and his unit hadn't just gone for paperwork.

0:22:340:22:38

They were also going to take the tools of the trade from the fraudsters.

0:22:380:22:41

We also seized around about ten cars.

0:22:430:22:46

We were able to show that these particular vehicles

0:22:460:22:49

had been involved in a crime.

0:22:490:22:51

Effectively, they were exhibits, as you would seize a forged document.

0:22:510:22:54

That was the reason that we took the cars.

0:22:540:22:57

The raid had been a complete success.

0:22:570:22:59

The matter was listed at Southwark Crown Court on 1st February 2013.

0:23:010:23:05

The two people who we charged was Ion Vaduva and Andre Malagiac.

0:23:050:23:11

They had both been charged with conspiracy to defraud the insurance industry

0:23:110:23:15

and they both pleaded guilty.

0:23:150:23:17

Another crash for cash gang had been brought down by the Met Traffic Unit

0:23:210:23:25

and the IFB,

0:23:250:23:27

making our roads a little bit safer to drive on.

0:23:270:23:30

It's important that claims management companies like Kami Claims are shut down.

0:23:320:23:35

It's not a victimless crime.

0:23:350:23:37

Firstly, in order to make a lot of these claims,

0:23:370:23:41

innocent members of the public's safety is being put at risk.

0:23:410:23:45

Secondly, insurance companies are not the only people that pay for this fraud.

0:23:450:23:49

Ultimately, as consumers, we all pay for the cost in our premiums.

0:23:490:23:54

Today, the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, IFED,

0:24:020:24:06

is tracking down two suspects 90 miles apart.

0:24:060:24:09

Both suspects are alleged to have used stolen bank account details

0:24:100:24:14

in order to purchase vehicle insurance.

0:24:140:24:15

This particular case is quite unpleasant

0:24:170:24:19

because the victims are actually a children's charity.

0:24:190:24:24

The team, led by DCI David Wood, is lying in wait for its suspect

0:24:240:24:29

who wasn't at his home address this morning.

0:24:290:24:32

90 miles away, the other IFED team has arrested its suspect.

0:24:320:24:36

We're going to search these premises.

0:24:390:24:40

We have authority to do it under section 32 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act

0:24:400:24:45

-for anything in relation to that offence or any other offence of a similar nature, OK?

-All right.

0:24:450:24:51

Do you have anything within these premises that you want to show us

0:24:510:24:54

-in relation to the policy that I talked about?

-No.

-OK.

0:24:540:24:58

All right. If you bear with us, we'll conduct the search

0:24:580:25:01

-and then we'll go from here to the local police station, OK?

-OK.

0:25:010:25:04

I'll just ask you to sit tight and assist us with that, OK?

0:25:040:25:07

The search for potential evidence of fraud begins.

0:25:100:25:13

Specifically, IFED is looking for items relating to the insurance purchased

0:25:130:25:17

with the charity's stolen bank account details.

0:25:170:25:20

IFED decides to focus the search on the suspect's bedroom.

0:25:220:25:25

One or two items in here that I'll be looking to seize.

0:25:270:25:31

A computer, because he's taken out the policy using his computer.

0:25:310:25:35

A cluttered surface in the suspect's room draws the attention

0:25:420:25:45

of DI Angela Rogers.

0:25:450:25:48

OK, that's just a mobile phone

0:25:480:25:50

that was on the top of the chest of drawers.

0:25:500:25:53

DI Rogers methodically sifts through the stacks of paperwork

0:25:560:26:00

and makes a potentially rewarding find

0:26:000:26:02

in the form of a bank statement.

0:26:020:26:04

This one's just in another name that I don't recognise,

0:26:050:26:08

so we'll just double check this one.

0:26:080:26:10

I'd be concerned as to why they've got a bank account in somebody else's name.

0:26:100:26:13

The address is for this address.

0:26:130:26:15

I'm concerned that it's been opened in a false name.

0:26:150:26:18

Amongst the clutter, DI Rogers unearths

0:26:180:26:20

another vehicle registration document linked to the stolen bank account details.

0:26:200:26:25

This is the V5 document for the vehicle he'd insured

0:26:270:26:33

using the charity trust account.

0:26:330:26:39

The suspect is taken away for further questioning

0:26:420:26:44

at a local police station.

0:26:440:26:46

The search is over.

0:26:510:26:53

It's been a very successful search as far as we're concerned.

0:26:540:26:58

It's been a good result for this IFED team

0:26:590:27:01

but it's only one half of a two-location raid.

0:27:010:27:04

90 miles away, DCI David Woods' patience has paid off.

0:27:040:27:09

-Come on, man.

-Let's have a chat in the car.

0:27:090:27:11

After a three-hour stake-out, his suspect has finally turned up.

0:27:110:27:15

You'll realise we're decent people.

0:27:150:27:18

WOMAN POLICE OFFICER SPEAKING

0:27:200:27:22

It took a little bit longer than planned

0:27:400:27:42

but DCI Wood is a happy man.

0:27:420:27:44

The investigation is now fully underway,

0:27:440:27:46

suspects are in custody,

0:27:460:27:48

so it's been a successful morning, albeit it didn't go exactly to plan

0:27:480:27:52

but sometimes these things don't.

0:27:520:27:54

But both suspects are now in police detention,

0:27:540:27:57

which is the objective of the exercise.

0:27:570:27:59

A great outcome for both of IFED's teams

0:28:010:28:03

in their on-going fight against the crime of insurance fraud.

0:28:030:28:07

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