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Insurance fraud in the UK has hit epidemic levels. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
It's costing us over £2 billion every year. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
That's almost £6 million every day. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:13 | |
Deliberate crashes, | 0:00:13 | 0:00:14 | |
bogus personal injuries, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
even phantom pets - | 0:00:17 | 0:00:19 | |
the fraudsters are risking more and more to make a quick killing. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:22 | |
Every year, it's adding over £50 to your insurance bill. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:27 | |
But insurers are fighting back, exposing 15 fake claims every hour. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:33 | |
Armed with covert surveillance systems... | 0:00:33 | 0:00:35 | |
Subject out of the vehicle. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
..sophisticated data analysis techniques | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
and a highly skilled, dedicated police unit... | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
Police, don't move, stay where you are! | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
..they're catching the criminals red-handed. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
Just don't lie to us. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:50 | |
All those conmen, scammers and cheats on the fiddle | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
are now caught in the act and claimed and shamed. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:58 | |
Coming up, secret filming saves an insurance company | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
from a fraudulent claim worth almost £2 million. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
Instead of somebody who could not use their right arm, | 0:01:12 | 0:01:16 | |
the footage shows somebody going about everyday life | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
with absolutely no trouble. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
A nasty collision between a pedestrian and a bus, but who was to blame? | 0:01:21 | 0:01:25 | |
If the driver's made eye contact and he's carried on, | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
is he saying that he's deliberately run him over? | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
And IFED execute 20 warrants, in their biggest operation this year. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:35 | |
You know him, don't you? | 0:01:36 | 0:01:38 | |
I can tell by your answer you know him. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
With many jobs, there's a risk of personal injury. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
Although with some, the element of danger is far greater than others. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:53 | |
Particularly, professions which rely on manual labour, | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
such as building or factory work. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
For people who do these sort of jobs, a personal injury claim | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
can be the saving grace in the event of an accident. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
But in 2010, Royal & Sun Alliance dealt with a claim submitted | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
by a young man which showed that things aren't always as they appear. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:13 | |
Danny Wykes is a young man who was working as a floor layer, | 0:02:13 | 0:02:18 | |
and with a colleague, he was unloading a mixer from a trailer. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:22 | |
The mixer was rolling down the trailer | 0:02:22 | 0:02:24 | |
but his colleague lost control of it, and so it free-fell, effectively, | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
and struck him on the right hand. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
So he did sustain an injury to his right hand, | 0:02:30 | 0:02:33 | |
but it was relatively minor. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
It was a soft tissue injury. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
It was the type of injury you may expect to heal within, say, a year. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
But this was a problem which didn't have any signs of going away. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:46 | |
He went on to develop a condition known as complex regional pain syndrome. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:50 | |
That's where somebody has a relatively minor injury. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
The injury appears to have healed, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:55 | |
there's no reason why they would continue to experience pain | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
but they carry on having a lot of pain. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:01 | |
Complex regional pain syndrome is a serious condition which can be | 0:03:02 | 0:03:06 | |
severely debilitating, and Danny Wykes' case was no different. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:10 | |
He claimed that he couldn't use his right hand at all. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
It hurt if somebody just touched it. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:15 | |
If somebody brushed past it, he would be in agony for days. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
He couldn't raise his hand to smoke a cigarette. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
He couldn't carry anything. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
It caused difficulty with sexual relationships | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
and he had to adopt a certain position. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
He had difficulty driving his vehicle, he couldn't work. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
He did say that he felt like, at times, it would be better | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
to amputate it because it was so useless. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
He was effectively like somebody with one arm. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:41 | |
It was quite a claim, and one which raised concerns at Royal & Sun Alliance's headquarters. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:48 | |
The claim was made to us, ultimately as his insurers, | 0:03:48 | 0:03:52 | |
and with his company and ourselves we were very sympathetic | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
and made some payments to him, and in fact were working | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
with him on rehabilitation to get him back to work. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
The lengths that Royal & Sun Alliance had gone to in an effort to | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
make life easier for Wykes weren't to be sniffed at. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
They paid for adaptations to his car, | 0:04:11 | 0:04:13 | |
they provided him with voice-activated software | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
for his computer because he allegedly couldn't type using his right hand. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
Over the course of the first 18 months, they would've spent | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
tens of thousands of pounds trying to help him to reach a full recovery. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:27 | |
By July 2011 he claims that in fact | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
he was getting worse rather than better, | 0:04:29 | 0:04:31 | |
and that the pain was now spreading up his right arm into his shoulder, | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
and he was also experiencing similar pain in his left arm. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
As far-fetched as this injury from a single knock to the back of the hand sounds, | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
specialist opinion confirmed that this could be a legitimate claim. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:46 | |
Medical experts, based primarily on his reported symptoms, | 0:04:48 | 0:04:52 | |
came to the view that he was suffering from his condition | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
and so they backed his claim. | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
He ultimately made a claim for £1.9 million of compensation | 0:04:59 | 0:05:05 | |
and this was based on his incapacity, | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
his inability to work and his future earnings, | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
plus a considerable amount of care that he would need in his life going forward. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:17 | |
At almost £2 million, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
the claim was effectively for a lifetime of compensation. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
But, before they handed over any money, | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
Royal & Sun Alliance began having doubts. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:28 | |
There came a point when we began to get suspicious | 0:05:28 | 0:05:32 | |
about the level of his incapacity. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
We began to investigate the case and deployed some surveillance. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:41 | |
The footage captured by the surveillance unit painted | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
a very different picture to the one that Danny Wykes had portrayed. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:50 | |
Instead of somebody who could not use their right arm, | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
and had trouble with their left arm, the footage shows somebody | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
going about everyday life with absolutely no trouble. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
It shows him driving his car, using both hands at the steering wheel, | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
going to the supermarket with his girlfriend, | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
selecting produce from the shelves, loading up the trolley. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:08 | |
At one point he seemed to put his weight through his arms | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
and ride on the trolley. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
He carries the heavy shopping bags, | 0:06:13 | 0:06:15 | |
he unloads bags from the car. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
He's seen throwing a ball to a dog, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
wheeling a wheelbarrow | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
and, in particular, in November 2011, which is the time that | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
he was signing court documents saying that he was extremely disabled, | 0:06:26 | 0:06:30 | |
the footage shows him at what appears to be a place of work | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
carrying a folded up table in one hand | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
and a double glazing unit in another hand. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
To say that the footage didn't help Danny Wykes' claim | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
ranks as the understatement of the year. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
We showed the footage to the medical experts, | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
who then, as a result of that, changed their opinion | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
and formed the view that Mr Wykes was either | 0:06:51 | 0:06:55 | |
grossly exaggerating the level of pain, or indeed making it up. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:59 | |
With Wykes' claim seemingly in tatters, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
Royal & Sun Alliance sent a copy of the video evidence to his legal team. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
When his solicitors received the surveillance footage, | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
they ceased to act for him. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
They weren't prepared to continue being his solicitors in light | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
of what he was seen doing on the footage. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
With no-one to represent him, Danny Wykes withdrew his claim, | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
but this story doesn't end there. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
I would imagine that he may have thought that he would | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
get to keep the money he had already had and he would simply walk away. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
He was on a no-win, no-fee agreement with his solicitor, so he wasn't | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
obliged to pay their costs because, effectively, he had not won his case. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:38 | |
By this stage, Danny Wykes had received interim payments | 0:07:38 | 0:07:41 | |
totalling around £25,000. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:43 | |
So if that WAS the end of it, he'd still have pocketed a tidy sum, | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
but unfortunately for him, the case was far from over. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:53 | |
In a normal case like this it wouldn't be unusual for the insurer | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
just to cut their losses and walk away. | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
In RSA, we take a really dim view of people that try and defraud us | 0:07:59 | 0:08:04 | |
because, ultimately, it affects our honest customers. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:09 | |
So we applied to the court for him | 0:08:10 | 0:08:12 | |
to be dealt with for contempt of court. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
Danny Wykes had gone from claimant to defendant. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
But even when it came to his defence for disrupting | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
the course of justice, his version of events raised a few eyebrows. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
He initially claimed that he wasn't guilty, and in fact | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
he had lacked the mental capacity to bring the civil claim | 0:08:29 | 0:08:33 | |
in the first place, and somebody else should have been | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
acting for him, therefore he shouldn't be held accountable. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
The court gave him permission to obtain a report from a psychiatrist | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
to say whether this was the case or not. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
The psychiatrist concluded that he DID have the mental capacity. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
So that defence fell away. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:50 | |
He then went on to allege that he hadn't read the court documents | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
and he wasn't actually aware that he was trying to claim £2 million. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:58 | |
So he tried various defences to get away with it. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
After over a year of trying different tactics to absolve | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
himself of any blame, and at a cost of £12,000 in legal aid, | 0:09:05 | 0:09:10 | |
Danny Wykes finally appeared in court. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:12 | |
On the first day of trial, | 0:09:12 | 0:09:14 | |
he admitted that he was guilty of contempt of court. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
He said that whilst he had sustained an injury to start with, | 0:09:18 | 0:09:22 | |
and when he saw his first medical expert in September 2010 | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
he was entirely truthful, he then started to get better | 0:09:26 | 0:09:30 | |
but he didn't tell anybody that he was getting better. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
He admitted that he had signed documents that he knew were false | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
and that he knew that would interfere with the course of justice. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:40 | |
As a result, he was found guilty of contempt of court | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
and he was sentenced to prison for six months | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
and ordered to pay RSA's costs of the proceedings. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:49 | |
Danny Wykes had stretched the truth, | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
but was now faced a six-month stretch behind bars. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
And his story is a stark reminder that when it comes to fraud, | 0:09:54 | 0:09:59 | |
insurance companies are no longer easy targets. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
People probably think that there's nothing to lose | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
and everything to gain by trying to get maximum damages. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
However, there is obviously, as this case shows, everything to lose | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
because Mr Wykes has lost his liberty. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
Still to come, IFED discover what could be promising leads | 0:10:19 | 0:10:23 | |
as a nationwide operation is carried out. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:26 | |
We are finding stuff going all the way back to 2010 | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
right the way up to present day. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
Road traffic accidents can be a nasty business. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
They often happen in a split second, and if there's no eyewitnesses, | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
then determining who's at fault | 0:10:45 | 0:10:46 | |
is inevitably one man's word against another. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
This is exactly the situation that bus operator FirstGroup | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
found themselves in back in 2012, | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
when one of their vehicles was involved in a gruesome incident. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
This case involved a gentleman who stepped out in front of a bus | 0:10:59 | 0:11:03 | |
on a busy High Street, and the driver reported that he's had a fairly | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
nasty collision with an individual who's been thrown to the floor, | 0:11:06 | 0:11:10 | |
he's sustained some quite serious injuries. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
And serious they were. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:15 | |
In fact, the pedestrian was lucky that they weren't fatal. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:18 | |
It's caused fractures to his left hip, fractures to his left thigh. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:24 | |
It's quite a big bone, the thigh bone, it's quite hard to break, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
so that in itself is a nasty injury. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
He's also got some severe bruising, and he's got some | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
facial injuries as well, from where he's struck the side of the bus. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:37 | |
The man was hospitalised for two weeks, but it wasn't long | 0:11:37 | 0:11:41 | |
before FirstGroup received a claim from him for compensation. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:45 | |
Although his account of how the accident unfolded | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
placed the blame solely at the feet of the driver. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:51 | |
The pedestrian has told us that he's standing behind a group of people. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:56 | |
He's looked to the left and to the right. | 0:11:56 | 0:12:00 | |
He's seen the bus driver gesticulate towards the rest of the pedestrians to cross the road, | 0:12:00 | 0:12:05 | |
and he himself has made eye contact with the bus driver | 0:12:05 | 0:12:09 | |
and then stepped out, and the bus has subsequently just driven into him. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:14 | |
All told, we're probably looking at around about £50,000. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
There was no disputing this was an horrendous accident, | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
and with a version of events as damning as that, | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
FirstGroup immediately launched an investigation. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
The first thing we're going to do is investigate fully, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
but on top of the compensation | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
we're also faced with the situation that he's laying some pretty severe allegations against our driver | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
so of course we want to look at the CCTV footage | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
and interview as many witnesses as we can. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
Buses are equipped with as many as 16 CCTV cameras, | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
covering virtually every angle inside and outside the bus. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
So, if the pedestrian's claims were true, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:52 | |
then FirstGroup would be hard pressed to argue otherwise. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
The key thing to remember in the third party's version of events | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
is that he makes it quite clear that the driver gesticulates | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
towards the pedestrians, and that he himself has made actual eye contact | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
with the driver, yet the bus still didn't stop. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
These are quite severe allegations to be making against one of our drivers. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
If the driver has made eye contact and he's carried on, | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
is he saying that he's deliberately run him over? | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
Highly unusual, and I'm not buying that for a second. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
There was only one way to find out what really happened. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
And fortunately for FirstGroup, | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
they had the entire sequence of events on camera. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
This CCTV footage was very important | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
because it revealed that the statement made by the injured | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
pedestrian was total fabrication, it didn't happen. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
The best camera view is the camera from the near side | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
looking towards the front of the bus, | 0:13:47 | 0:13:49 | |
which clearly shows the pedestrian walking along the path, | 0:13:49 | 0:13:53 | |
and for absolutely no reason at all, with no real warning, | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
he just turns right and steps into the path of the bus. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:01 | |
The camera in the driver's cab | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
shows there were no gesticulations from the driver. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
With evidence as clear as this, | 0:14:08 | 0:14:10 | |
the pedestrian's case wasn't exactly what you'd call rock solid. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:14 | |
I would say this whole claim hinges on the fact that this gentleman has | 0:14:14 | 0:14:18 | |
said that the driver has waved him across, made eye contact with him. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
He's assumed it's safe to cross, and the bus has then driven into him. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:25 | |
We know that just did not happen. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
Just to be sure, let's take another look. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:31 | |
As the bus approaches, we can clearly see that the man | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
is walking along the road and is not waiting to cross. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
Meanwhile, in the cab, | 0:14:38 | 0:14:40 | |
at no point does the driver raise his hand to wave the man over. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:44 | |
When the pedestrian steps out into the road, it's only when the bus is | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
inches from his face that he turns to see whether it's safe to cross. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
It felt very good to actually throw this claim out because we could prove | 0:14:55 | 0:14:59 | |
that this chap was just not telling the truth. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
We don't like people who don't tell the truth, it makes our job harder! | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
There is a valuable lesson to be learned from this case, | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
and that's to be honest about where the blame really lies | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
before submitting a claim. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
Because if you're the one who's at fault, | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
then the chances are you don't have a leg to stand on. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
I think, despite the fact that he's suffered some very severe | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
injuries, I think it's disgraceful that he's deliberately tried | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
to mislead us just so that he can get a pay out on his injuries. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:34 | |
And no-one's denying the fact that they were severe, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
but you can't just expect someone else to pay up | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
because you've not looked properly when you've crossed the road. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
In January 2012, the police joined the fight against insurance fraud | 0:15:48 | 0:15:52 | |
by forming an elite squad known as IFED, | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
IFED is a dedicated team that deals with insurance fraud. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
Whatever insurance policy there is out there, we investigate it. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:06 | |
There is a dedicated 40-strong unit that work 24/7, | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
hunting down insurance fraudsters. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
IFED has made over 450 arrests | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
and saved millions of pounds in fraudulent insurance claims, | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
money which ultimately goes back in our pockets. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
From now on, fraudsters need to watch their backs. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
We are out there in numbers. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
You might get a nasty knock on your door in the morning | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
if you commit this type of fraud. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:31 | |
Police, don't move! Stay where you are. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:33 | |
It's 5:50am, and today IFED are carrying out | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
a major nationwide sting | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
involving over 100 police officers across the country. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:44 | |
Today's operation is targeting suspected fraudsters | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
who make fake insurance claims for courtesy cars, | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
provided to motorists while their vehicles are being fixed. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
With 20 warrants being simultaneously executed | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
across the UK, | 0:16:56 | 0:16:57 | |
this is IFED's largest operation this year. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
DC Jamie Kirk and DS Marcus Allen are heading up | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
one of the many units. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
Today is massive because warrants will be executed | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
at home addresses, where we hope to arrest the suspects | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
and then move on to business addresses to seize items | 0:17:12 | 0:17:17 | |
which will show the level of criminality of those involved. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:22 | |
The first stop for Marcus and Jamie | 0:17:24 | 0:17:26 | |
is what's believed to be the home address of the prime suspect. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
-Good morning. -Morning. -We're officers from the City Of London Police. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:40 | |
We've got a warrant to come into the premises, so we need to come in. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:44 | |
We'll come in and we'll explain what's happening to you. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
But once inside, the team hit a bit of a dead end. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
We've got a warrant to search this premises. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
It's in relation to a chap called... | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
You know him, don't you? | 0:17:59 | 0:18:01 | |
I can tell by your answer you know him. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
It turns out that although this house belongs to the suspect, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
the family living here are actually tenants | 0:18:07 | 0:18:09 | |
and are nothing to do with the investigation. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
But that doesn't mean they can't be of assistance. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
Do you have a contact number for him? | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
OK, can we have that? | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
They might not have got their man yet, | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
but Marcus and Jamie have been given contact numbers | 0:18:21 | 0:18:23 | |
for both the suspect and his family. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
Right, we have a warrant here. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:28 | |
That warrant has been signed by a judge | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
and that gives us the authority to search this house. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
There's no sign of the offences we're investigating, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
no evidence for that. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
So what we need to do now is contact him. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
We've got officers at the business address, | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
so if he turns up there to get rid of any evidence | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
he'll be intercepted, arrested and a warrant will be done there. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
Although the team now have phone numbers for the suspect | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
and his family, | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
as yet they haven't been able to get hold of either of them. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
We're going to the business premises, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
where we will wait for office hours, | 0:19:09 | 0:19:12 | |
and hopefully staff or our suspect will turn up. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
We'll arrest the suspect if he turns up. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
If staff turn up there, | 0:19:20 | 0:19:21 | |
we'll execute the warrant and search the premises for evidence. | 0:19:21 | 0:19:24 | |
Through here, then a right at the end. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
It's still only 8:00am, | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
so it's a waiting game for the team as they stake out the offices. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
But while they're lying in wait, | 0:19:38 | 0:19:40 | |
the suspect's family returns their phone call. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
My name's Jamie Kirk, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:44 | |
I'm a detective with the City Of London Police. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:47 | |
I came to your brother's property this morning, | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
cos I need to speak to him | 0:19:50 | 0:19:51 | |
and I need to speak to you in relation to some matters. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:55 | |
Where's your brother, then? Where is he? | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
He must be somewhere. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:00 | |
He's gone back home? | 0:20:00 | 0:20:02 | |
Well, where's back home? | 0:20:02 | 0:20:03 | |
It sounds as though the main suspect may be overseas. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
But his family has given them an address | 0:20:08 | 0:20:10 | |
which they didn't know was connected to the case. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
So Jamie and Marcus are going to leave another team | 0:20:13 | 0:20:15 | |
to stake out the office, while they chase up this unexpected lead. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:19 | |
Right, I don't think we should rest on our laurels. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
Number one...yeah. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
-Right, shall we go? -Let's go in, yeah. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
DC Kirk from City Of London Police, just spoke you on the phone. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
I need to come in and talk to you. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
The cameras remain outside, but the investigation is progressing well. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
The business premises for which we have a warrant, | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
there is activity there, | 0:21:00 | 0:21:01 | |
so officers have gone through the door of the business premises. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:04 | |
They'll secure that. We'll start the search. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
Hopefully, the suspect may even turn up there. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:09 | |
In the meantime, | 0:21:09 | 0:21:11 | |
we're doing a comprehensive search of the premises here. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
We've already found some documentation | 0:21:13 | 0:21:16 | |
that may be linked to the offence. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:18 | |
We found cash in one of the vehicles outside the address, | 0:21:18 | 0:21:22 | |
and also some money secreted in one of the bedrooms. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
The person arrested, the brother of the main suspect, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
has been taken away now. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:31 | |
He'll be held at the police station and we'll question him in due course. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:35 | |
IFED have managed to confirm that their main suspect is abroad, | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
so they'll have to wait to get their hands on him. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:42 | |
But all is not lost, as another family member, | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
who is also believed to be involved, has been arrested | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
and taken to the local police station for questioning. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
We are finding stuff going all the way back to 2010 | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
right the way up to present day. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:56 | |
There's round about £90,000 we've managed to identify so far. | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
Just from looking at documentation here, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:02 | |
I would imagine that our financial investigators | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
are going to find substantially more than that. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
With everything at the house done and dusted, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
Marcus and Jamie head to the business premises | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
where they soon discover documents of interest. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:19 | |
We've found documentation that supports the allegations | 0:22:19 | 0:22:24 | |
of defrauding the insurance companies. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
This is the specific claims where we know | 0:22:26 | 0:22:29 | |
that the fraud's been made in these names. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:33 | |
So if we can get the original paperwork for that, that's great. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
It's been a long day with many twists and turns, | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
but Marcus and Jamie are delighted with the way things have gone. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
The original was 26 claims and we were looking at around £90,000. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:50 | |
I think we're in excess of that. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
So, with everything else today it's a great job, really. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:57 | |
As successful as today has been, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
there's a final loose end to be tied, | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
or more likely, collared and cuffed. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
Yeah, it's been a great day - successful, achieved everything, | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
just one thing we need to do now is to arrest the main suspect. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
Just got some information in that | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
he's flying into the country on Monday. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
We need to get him early as possible, | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
so he doesn't have the chance to speak to others | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
and to maybe destroy evidence. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:28 | |
Therefore I will be there, and we will be the welcoming committee | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
when he steps off the plane. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:32 | |
A total of 17 people were arrested across the country | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
as part of IFED's nationwide operation into credit hire fraud. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
As any animal lover will tell you, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:54 | |
getting a pet can be an exciting time. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
But for breeders, handing over a young puppy or kitten | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
to a new family can be a precarious business, as there's no way | 0:24:00 | 0:24:04 | |
of knowing whether there will be any problems with the animal's health. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
Thankfully, many pet insurers provide breeders | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
with a short-term period of cover. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
There's a facility that insurance companies offer breeders | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
when they're selling new puppies and kittens, | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
and that is to put a temporary period of insurance on the puppy or kitten | 0:24:18 | 0:24:23 | |
that allows the new owner the ability just to take the puppy or kitten | 0:24:23 | 0:24:27 | |
to the vet at the earliest sign that they suspect a problem. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
Because most of the breeders are breeding pedigree animals, | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
because there's a purchase price involved, there is the ability, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:38 | |
if the animal does sadly die, to claim for the purchase price. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
So it protects the new owner, ensures the puppy has the best care | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
and it also to a certain extent protects the breeder. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
But for unscrupulous scammers, even a short-term insurance policy | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
like this can be used as a means to cash in. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
Which is something that Agria Pet Insurance discovered in 2012. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:59 | |
The breed was a pug. A young puppy. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:02 | |
Sold at the end of December in 2012, | 0:25:02 | 0:25:04 | |
and a few days later | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
it was presented to a vet with acute respiratory problems. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:10 | |
Not unusual for a pug puppy. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
The puppy was seen by the policyholder's vet, | 0:25:12 | 0:25:17 | |
and then seen again by the breeder's vet and sadly euthanized. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
Losing a pet is never easy. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
But in this case it was particularly painful, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
because pedigree pugs don't come cheap. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
Normally, pug puppies will be sold maybe between £800 and £1,500, | 0:25:30 | 0:25:34 | |
and the purchase price that the policyholder was claiming for | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
in this instance was about £1,500. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
It was a hefty loss. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:41 | |
But it wasn't just the new owners who were out of pocket. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
Our suspicions were that the breeder had had a litter of pugs, | 0:25:44 | 0:25:50 | |
maybe one or two in the litter. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
The breed also have usually Caesarean sections, | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
so there would have been investment by the breeder | 0:25:56 | 0:25:58 | |
just to have the puppies born. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:00 | |
So the breeder had money on the table, | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
and if one puppy wasn't saleable | 0:26:03 | 0:26:04 | |
because it wasn't well, he was going to lose some investment. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
Fortunately, the policy that was in place would cover | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
the financial loss, but as Agria began to process the claim, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:15 | |
they noticed something rather unusual. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
Our suspicions were alerted with this case | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
because the policyholder and the breeder had the same surname. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
In itself, that's not a fraud indicator. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:25 | |
However, when the claim form was submitted, | 0:26:25 | 0:26:27 | |
a letter came in stating categorically | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
that the breeder and the policyholder, | 0:26:30 | 0:26:32 | |
although they shared the same surname, weren't related. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
That's quite important because, with this type of policy, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
if the breeder has sold the puppy to a new owner, and issued | 0:26:38 | 0:26:43 | |
the insurance, and that new owner is a member of the family, | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
the insurance will be invalid. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
Unsurprisingly, Agria began to investigate the legitimacy of the claim. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:54 | |
So we approached the owner and the breeder | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
to just determine they weren't in fact related. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
We asked them the question, they denied that they were related, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:05 | |
but then they became very evasive | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
and trying to get hold of them became very difficult. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:11 | |
And, as it turned out, there was good reason as to why the owner | 0:27:11 | 0:27:14 | |
and the breeder weren't responding to the insurance company's calls. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
When we started to probe, | 0:27:18 | 0:27:19 | |
when we started to look at the veterinary records, | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
and the vet categorically had got | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
the owner and the breeder down as brothers. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
When we looked at Facebook | 0:27:26 | 0:27:28 | |
and social media, it was very evident that the two were related | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
and the policy was invalid. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:33 | |
Thankfully, a fraudulent claim had been avoided, | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
but this is typical of the kind of underhanded activity | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
that companies like Agria need to be on their guard against. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
I think in this instance it was an opportunistic claim. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
I think breeders think that insurance companies | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
are remote and distant, | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
and with the volume of claims that certainly go through with pet insurance, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
this one will probably slip under the radar. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
No, it's not sophisticated fraud, it's very opportunistic fraud, | 0:27:57 | 0:28:01 | |
it's often not thought through at all. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 | |
For the individuals who think they can get away with this, we're looking for them. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 |