Episode 9 Claimed and Shamed

Insurance fraud in the UK has hit epidemic levels.

It's costing us over £2 billion every year.

That's almost £6 million every day.

Whoa!

Deliberate crashes, bogus personal injuries, even phantom pets.

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

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

But insurers are fighting back,

exposing 15 fake claims every hour.

Armed with covert surveillance systems...

There's the subject out the vehicle.

..sophisticated data analysis techniques...

..and a highly-skilled, dedicated police unit...

Police! Don't move, stay where you are!

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

Don't lie to us.

All those con men, scammers and cheats on the fiddle

are now caught in the act,

and claimed and shamed.

Today, the jaw-dropping story of how far one man was prepared

to go in order to defraud an insurance company...

In order for his biggest fraud

to be successful

he's had to kill a man.

..the solicitor who thought she was above the law but lost everything...

She's been struck off. All this just demonstrates was how greedy she was.

..and IFED carry out raids in 20 different locations

in their biggest operation this year.

I'm Aman Taylor, a police officer.

Stop what you're doing and take your hands off the computer.

With millions of pounds lost every day in the UK

through insurance fraud, there are many stories of people

going to extraordinary lengths

in order to make a claim.

But in 2012, West Midlands Police dealt with a case of fraud

which defied belief.

Detective Inspector Warren Hinds was the senior officer

on the investigation.

On the morning of 28 November 2012, West Midlands Police

were alerted that there was a body floating in this one pool

in Sandwell Valley Country Park, which is a large park

just outside West Bromwich in Birmingham.

Um, the body appeared to be of a...you know,

early, middle-aged Asian male.

And he'd died as a result of a significant wound to his throat.

An autopsy revealed that this was anything but an accident,

and so, West Midlands police found themselves dealing with

a murder case.

The first step was to identify the victim.

Jasbir Bains was a man who was born and brought up

in the West Bromwich area close to where he met his death.

Fair to say, he'd probably had a few ups and downs in his life,

and, sometime in 2006, he emigrated to Canada.

Didn't return to England till the tail end of 2011.

I mean, he'd always worked,

but towards the end of his life he was leading a transient existence.

He was of no fixed abode.

He was dabbling in drugs, drinking too much.

Basically, he needed to get himself sorted out.

It's fair to say that Jasbir Singh had his problems,

but that didn't explain why anyone would want to take his life.

There was one person that really was of interest to me,

and that was a chap called Jamie Rai.

What our investigations revealed was that in 2006, Jasbir,

our victim, had borrowed £14,000 off Jamie Rai,

who was a school friend.

They'd grown up in the local area together.

The intention was that that £14,000 debt would be paid back

in the near future...

but it wasn't.

Jasbir had emigrated to Canada to be with his family

and never paid Jamie Rai any of the money back.

Jamie Rai, towards the end of 2012, also,

his own financial situation was rapidly deteriorating.

And he was a man that needed some money.

With Rai in financial difficulty and still owed a lot of money

by Jasbir, it was certainly possible

that there could be some bad feelings.

But what detectives discovered next turned Rai into a prime suspect.

Jamie Rai had assumed our victim's identity when he left for Canada.

While he had assumed his identity, he perpetrated a number of frauds.

One was a mortgage fraud in which...which enabled him

to buy a house in West Bromwich.

Um, but, interestingly, he also took out a life insurance policy,

which, if it'd paid out, would have benefited Jamie Rai's children

to the sum of just under £320,000.

It was a chilling discovery.

And with a fraudulent life insurance policy which paid out

over £300,000 to Rai's children in the event of Jasbir's death,

it's an understatement to say that the evidence was

stacked against him.

Jamie Rai's a persistent fraudster really.

But most of his offending was fairly low level really.

This life insurance policy that he'd taken out

really would have been the equivalent of a lottery win to him.

It was in a completely different league.

But it's fair to say, with that and the house that he'd purchased,

and obviously, the other policies of insurance that he'd taken out

in relation to the house, had he been successful,

he'd have benefited to just over £370,000.

He would have been quite a wealthy man.

There was no disputing that Rai had a motive,

and, as West Midlands Police continued to investigate the case,

everything pointed to Rai being the culprit of this despicable crime.

On the night of the 27th November, Jamie Rai had CCTV cameras

at the front and rear of his house.

Now, those would show who was coming and going from his address.

Um, and, just after 6.30 in the evening,

the camera on the front of the house gets turned away.

Now, that becomes important later because his assertion,

once he was arrested, was that he was at home all night.

He hadn't actually been out.

And when the police checked Rai's mobile phone records

it confirmed the police's suspicions.

Jamie Rai contacted Jasbir,

and lured him during the course of a couple of phone calls

and a number of text messages

to Sandwell Valley Country Park.

The most logical route is down a one-way street

and down a little alleyway.

And the only conclusion you can draw from that is that Jasbir

has been lured to this remote location by somebody that he

knows and somebody that he thinks he can trust.

That person was Jamie Rai.

With the evidence piling up against Rai,

West Midlands Police were certain they had their man.

The evidence that we had was all circumstantial, however,

when you take it all together,

it presents a very, very compelling picture.

The last phone call that ever was received by our victim was made

by a telephone that Jamie Rai had total control of.

We had the debt from 2006,

we had the mortgage fraud perpetrated in the victim's name,

and also, a big one was the life insurance policy.

Jamie Rai stood to benefit to the tune of just under £320,000

in the advent of Jasbir's death.

And that, to my mind, was a really powerful motive for murder.

Incredibly, greed had led a man to kill a childhood friend

for the sake of a few hundred thousand pounds.

And, in April 2012, Jamie Rai was arrested for fraud

and the murder of Jasbir Singh.

Jamie Rai stood trial at the start of 2014 at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

At the end of the trial the presiding judge

said just what a cold-hearted, callous and brutal killing this was.

The sentence that Jamie Rai was given was life imprisonment,

and the minimum term he would have to serve before being

eligible for parole was 27 years.

The judge also gave him 4½ years to run alongside that life sentence

for the fraud act offences.

So, a significant sentence but one that's wholly right

in the circumstances.

I do feel quite satisfied that Jamie Rai is now going to be accountable

for his actions and spend a lot of time in prison as a result.

It's the right place for him to be.

It's hard to believe that a brutal murder could be connected with

insurance fraud, but this case demonstrates the extreme lengths

that some people are prepared to go to.

What sets Jamie Rai apart from your average fraudster is that he's

sort of taken the next step up, if you like.

Um, in order for his biggest fraud to be successful,

he's had to kill a man.

That would take a certain amount of planning, wouldn't it?

Clearly, he has planned the murder.

Clearly, he had planned to claim on the life insurance policy.

I guess at the time that he'd gone through with it all, he didn't expect

to be stood at Wolverhampton Crown Court being sentenced to

life imprisonment.

Although this is a very unusual case, Warren is keen to point out

that any type of fraud can result in a brush with the law.

There's a bit of a myth generally amongst people who perpetrate fraud

that police aren't interested, that we...

You know, if anybody reports fraud to us,

we sort of encourage them to go to the bank and report it there,

and the bank will do their investigations -

nothing could be further from the truth.

Fraud's a crime, and the police are very interested in it.

Still to come, dodgy driving.

It's a very dangerous manoeuvre, and it's also not fair

then to say that the bus has drifted into you.

And IFED get their hands on some high-octane evidence.

Insurance fraud is nothing new,

and is committed by people from all walks of life.

However, there are some fraudsters who you really think

would know better.

Back in 2004, Allianz dealt with a case that ended up having lifelong

consequences for their claimant, who, believe it or not,

was a solicitor.

We received a claim from Mrs Seepersand

relating to an injury that she's alleged that she sustained

while slipping on a wet floor in a shopping mall.

The injuries that she told us that she'd suffered were back injuries,

and she was alleging

that there were no signs warning people of a wet floor.

But on investigation we discovered,

and we talked to a number of people who worked there,

other witnesses, that they all saw the signs very clearly labelled

to say that there was a wet floor there.

With any accident, it's not uncommon to have conflicting

versions of events from the parties involved.

But, as someone in the legal profession, Mrs Seepersand

would have known that to back up her claim,

what she really needed was an independent witness.

So, you'll never guess what happened next.

Initially, we resisted making any payment

but sometime down the line

we received an independent witness statement that Mrs Seepersand

had provided.

An account from an independent witness can often be

the deciding factor in whether or not a claim is successful.

And this case was no different.

The witness statement was made by a Mrs Singh.

And she would say in her statement that she was passing by

and she saw the fall,

and that she was absolutely certain that there was no signage in place.

At that point we settled the claim, and as far as we were concerned,

the case was completed and we closed our file.

Now, so far, it all sounds routine.

An accident with an independent witness who steps forward,

gives an honest account of what happened

which leads to the claim being paid.

But this story has a rather interesting twist.

Two years later, we received a call from another insurer

advising us that they'd received a claim,

again, from Mrs Seepersand,

and this related to a motor vehicle accident

that she'd had with a parked car.

The interesting aspect of this was the other party was none other

than the independent witness that featured in the claim that she

submitted against us four years previously.

Now, there's a coincidence.

They say lightning never strikes in the same place twice.

Well, it did for Mrs Seepersand.

But Allianz weren't convinced.

The chances of the same individuals being involved in completely

separate incidents, one being a...sort of a slip-and-trip-type

accident, another one being a car accident,

five, six years apart, it's beyond coincidence.

Smelling a rat, Allianz decided to do some digging around.

We were able to obtain references from employers

and also gather some e-mail evidence

that clearly showed that these

two individuals had been friends for a very, very long time.

Although they'd been found out, this pair of fraudster friends had

stood to make a lot of money from their lies and deceit.

Had Mrs Seepersand

been successful in both attempts,

she would have received around £35,000.

But, for Mrs Seepersand,

being caught out was just the beginning of a downward spiral.

The police were very, very quick and very keen to take the case on,

and it proceeded to court where Mrs Seepersand

and Mrs Singh were both convicted of fraud-related offences.

Mrs Seepersand received a 12-month custodial sentence

which was suspended for two years.

Mrs Singh received 8 months for the first incident

and another 12 months for the second.

But this was also suspended for two years.

As a solicitor, Mrs Seepersand was in the business of upholding

the law, but having been found guilty of breaking it herself,

the consequences were life-changing.

Mrs Seepersand essentially lost everything.

She's been struck off,

she can no longer act as a solicitor.

So, was it really worth it?

As with so many other cases of insurance fraud,

the motive behind Mrs Seepersand's actions was nothing more than greed.

Had she just stuck with the first claim, um...

That was paid,

and she never would have hit the radars of the insurance companies.

But the fact she then went on to commit a second fraud

and worked with the same people,

I think was her undoing.

And, to me, all this just demonstrates was how greedy she was.

People often think insurance fraud is easy to get away with.

But this case illustrates this is far from the truth.

This is a really good example which demonstrates how insurance

companies do talk to each other,

especially around preventing fraud.

We have our systems, we share information,

we regularly liaise with each other.

There's a lot more chance nowadays you'll get caught.

With the cost of insurance fraud escalating,

the City Of London Police joined the fight in January 2012

when they formed an elite squad known as the

Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department.

I would say to anyone who was considering

committing insurance fraud

that, now, this is no longer a crime without consequence

that it may have been in the past, there is

a dedicated 40-strong unit known as IFED

that work 24/7 hunting down insurance fraudsters.

IFED have made over 450 arrests,

and saved millions of pounds in fraudulent insurance claims.

Money which ultimately goes back into our pockets.

From now on, fraudsters need to watch their backs.

So, if you're thinking about it, I suggest, think again.

There's every chance you'll get an IFED detective

knocking on your front door. HE KNOCKS

Police! Don't move, stay where you are!

It's early morning, and IFED

are about to launch one of their biggest operations to date.

With 20 warrants being executed in simultaneous raids

across the country

as they attempt to bring down a suspected car insurance scam.

Aman Taylor is in charge of one of the units.

First thing to look at today is the director and chief engineer

of a vehicle assessor company.

We're looking for forged documents submitted as part

of a claim to the insurance company relating to credit hire.

Because of the types of vehicles involved with this particular case,

IFED are dealing with large sums of money.

From the list of vehicles that we're looking at,

quite a lot of them are hire vehicles - BMWs, Mercedes.

There's Porsches, Aston Martins, that sort of thing on the list.

There are a couple of lower-end vehicles,

but the majority of them are sort of higher-end,

sort of what you'd class as like prestige cars.

Expensive cars.

Because they can claim a higher rate of credit hire,

and they can charge a lot more for the more expensive cars.

Carrying out multiple raids simultaneously requires

a great deal of planning, resources and communication.

But, as Aman explains, the potential benefits far outweigh

the difficulties of organising such a huge operation.

This morning it's planned around the same time.

We're going to go to the address at the same sort of time.

From our point of view it's the best way of doing it

so that we can secure all the evidence that we can,

without allowing someone the chance to dispose of anything.

Having arrived at the location and liaised with the other units,

it's time for the raids to begin,

so Aman leads his team in.

Hi. I'm Aman Taylor, a police officer from the City Of London Police.

We're looking for...

-Yeah? He's not here?

-No.

Do you know where he is?

Is he?

For a minute, just stop what you're doing.

Just take your hands off the computer.

We've got a warrant to search this premises, all right?

In relation to an investigation into a credit hire company.

So, what we're going to do, we're going to have officers here

that will search for some documents that they're looking for.

That's covered under an owner warrant.

We'll give you a notice which explains the reasons why we're

here and the powers that was being used to search for those documents.

But I still need to speak to... SOUND DIPPED

Is he going to be out for the whole day, do you know?

Yeah, OK. All right.

We'll cross that bridge later. Have you got a number for him?

-A mobile number or something?

-Yes.

-Yeah?

OK. All right.

So, what I ask that you don't do for now, is you don't

make any phone calls or use the computers.

Just leave them as they are for now.

The suspect that Aman needs to speak to might not be here

but that doesn't mean IFED's work here is done.

The team begins a systematic search of the office,

looking for documentation and any other evidence

that relates to this suspected fraud.

Meanwhile, Aman leaves to see if he can track down the suspect.

We're going to the home address now, um,

to try to see if our suspect is at the home address.

So, that is the next plan of attack, and then...

if he's not, what I will do is... I've got a phone number for him now,

so I'll look to phone him,

arrange for him to come to the address so we can search,

then take him to the police station. That's the plan.

It's that end one.

A short drive later and Aman has arrived,

but will he get his man this time?

Morning. SOUND DIPPED

MALE SPEAKS

He's not here?

-No.

-I've got a warrant to search the premises.

The suspect isn't home.

But as they're here, Aman and his colleague give the house

a quick sweep for anything which relates to the case.

He's shown us round, there's no office, so we don't need to search,

so, I'll contact him, arrange for him to come to the police station

so he can be interviewed.

My name's Aman Taylor, I'm from the City Of London Police.

We've been to your business address,

and I've just been to your home address,

we need to speak to you regarding some assessments

you've done on vehicles.

Unfortunately, you're going to have to do it today

cos today's the day we're doing it.

We've got officers at your business address that are searching now

and looking for some documentation relating to the investigation, so,

you are going to have to do it today.

The suspect has agreed to attend an interview at the police station

later on.

And word has come through from Aman's team that the

search at the office has gone well.

We're happy with how it's gone so far.

We've got the original documentation that we were looking for,

and we've arranged for him to come in. So, overall, it's gone very well.

IFED have seized a number of documents

and a PC tower from the office

which will be analysed by computer experts for any evidence

relating to the case.

He knows that we're onto him.

He knows that he's got to come in for an interview now.

We've spoken and made the arrangements, so...

if he breaks that arrangement, we'll go to his house and just arrest him.

Still to come, IFED's investigation

gets off the ground as they remove suspected evidence

at another one of the raid locations.

We've just recovered a Ferrari

which is worth in excess of £150,000.

You know how it is, you're in the car, you're running late

and you think you might just make it,

and then you get stuck behind a bus.

Impatiently, you go for the overtake, only to misjudge it

and collide with a bus.

GLASS SMASHES

Cars driving across and into buses, otherwise known as drifting,

is something that bus operators like First Group see on a regular basis.

And it's a far bigger problem than you might think.

These are claims where people will try to race across

and get in front of the bus.

They will often exceed the speed limit because the buses tend to be

travelling at it, so they tend to try and get round the front.

Often, they can then find themselves with the traffic in front of them

slowing down, so they then have to slow down,

and there will be collisions.

Drivers who do this are not only putting

the safety of themselves at risk, but also the safety of other road

users, including the bus and its passengers.

What they're actually doing is,

they're pulling across and reducing the braking distance of a bus,

or sometimes they're pulling in far too sharply

and actually striking the front of the bus with their own vehicles.

Of course, when manoeuvres like this go wrong,

which they frequently do

more often than not,

it's the bus driver who's accused of being at fault.

And then when they put their claim in,

they're alleging that the bus has deviated from its current lane

and swerved into the side or the back of the car.

A classic example of this happened in 2012 when an impatient

motorist just couldn't wait to get past one of First Group's buses.

Before the collision takes place,

you can see the driver of the white car

shaping up to go round the bus, even though there are

double white lines on the road,

which mean overtaking is not allowed.

As the traffic gets moving again, the driver goes for the overtake.

But what they didn't bank on

was the island in the middle of the road.

Unsurprisingly, the car doesn't make it through the gap

and collides with the bus.

It wasn't long before First Group heard from the

driver's insurance company.

And, in his version of events,

the bus had pulled into him

and the bus driver was to blame.

But, of course, it isn't always just damage to their vehicles that

drivers will submit claims for.

We'll regularly see claims come in for incidents of this nature.

There will invariably be a whiplash injury claim,

you've got the damage to the vehicle,

all through their own fault really,

although they'll obviously try and pin it on the bus company

and claim the money back, and it's just not fair to do so.

Both occupants of the white car submitted personal injury claims,

but, thanks to the CCTV footage,

the entire claim was rejected.

But incidents like this are nothing new.

There's a number of types of ways that these people try

and cut in front of the buses. They'll either speed up and...

cut in front and then brake, or alternatively,

they'll just slowly drift over

into the bus, actually colliding with it sometimes

or just very close and just missing the front of the bus.

Either way, it's a very dangerous manoeuvre.

And it's also not fair then to say that the bus has drifted into you

when we can often prove that's just not the case.

Some buses are equipped with as many as 16 CCTV cameras,

covering every angle inside and outside the bus.

The reason they're there is to ensure the safety of the driver

and passengers.

Although, in the event of a collision,

they can come in very handy when it comes to proving who's at fault.

I think these individuals tend to be someone who's

come across a situation, put themselves in a situation...

um, the vehicle's been damaged,

they're not prepared to accept responsibility for themselves,

so they are going to try and pin the blame on someone else.

It won't always be possible to do that,

and eventually we will find out if they're lying.

So, to anyone out there who thinks that a claim like this could be

their ticket to some easy money, Lee has some words of advice.

I would suggest to drivers that are thinking of putting in these

types of claims - be aware of your facts

because if you're saying that the bus has pulled into you,

invariably, the bus is in a bus lane,

there's no reason for that bus to have moved

which is going to make us suspicious to begin with and we've got CCTV.

So, we will find out what actually happened.

Today, IFED have carried out their biggest operation this year,

with teams raiding 20 different locations

as they attempt to bring down a suspected motor insurance scam.

We've got a warrant to search these premises,

so, for the time being, don't make any phone calls or use the computers.

Just leave them as they are for now.

After a slow start, Aman Taylor managed to track down his suspect,

who agreed to attend the police station for interviewing.

Aman's team also seized documents

and computer equipment thought to be connected to the case.

He knows that we're onto him,

he knows that he's got to come in for an interview now.

I've spoken with him and we've made the arrangement, so,

if he breaks that arrangement, then we'll go to his home address

and arrest him.

But it isn't just paper and PCs that are being taken away today...

..because, at one of the other raid locations,

the City Of London Police are seizing

something much more exciting.

We've just recovered a Ferrari

which is worth in excess of £150,000

which we believe may be evidence of money laundering.

As with all acquisitive crime,

obviously the assets, we are keen to get hold of those

for any future confiscation or compensation proceedings.

It's early days in the investigation,

but a boy's toy worth as much as this raises a lot of questions.

Clearly, a car of this value is quite unique,

and therefore, one could consider that, if convicted,

this could be the proceeds of crime and used to compensate victims,

and also be confiscated under the appropriate legislation.

And no criminal should benefit... obviously, from their offending.

With £150,000 worth of supercar shackled onto the back

of a low-loader, it hasn't been a good day for the Ferrari's owner.

But IFED and the City Of London Police are over the moon.

Yeah, very good day I think. Yeah, very pleased.