Episode 8 Claimed and Shamed

Insurance fraud in the UK has hit epidemic levels.

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

That's almost £6 million a day.

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 around 14 fake claims every hour.

Armed with covert surveillance systems...

Subject out the vehicle.

..sophisticated data analysis techniques...

..and a number of highly skilled police units...

Police, stay where you are!

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

Just 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.

Coming up:

A convicted drug dealer thinks a bump on the head will give him

a bumper pay-out.

Mr Foster claimed that he had fallen from his top bunk

during the night and that he'd been knocked unconscious,

suffering a severe head injury.

Thames Valley Police continue to clamp down hard on suspected

crash-for-cash gangs.

Hello, it's the police.

And after feeling under par,

a golf professional tees himself up for a double bogey.

The insurance company grew suspicious because they

received information that Mr Turner had been working at a golf club.

Some criminals just don't know when to stop.

And you'd think being locked up would be enough of a deterrent,

but for some, time inside just seems like an excuse to

steal from hard-working taxpayers.

Too many prisoners now see bogus personal injury

claims as a nice little earner.

The kind of people who put in false claims while in prison

are the kind of people who don't realise the implications of doing so,

both cost and to their own freedom.

At Her Majesty's Prison Manchester, the litigation team can sometimes

be processing as many as 120 claims at any one time.

These claims can be all sorts of trips, slips and falls, but one

of the most common is for injuries sustained from falling out of bed.

There are a number of prisoners claiming to have fallen from the top

bunk at Manchester. It's quite a hot topic.

The injuries vary from case to case.

Some claim to have banged their elbows,

some claim to have bruised their side,

some have suffered head injuries, front, back, facial injuries.

22-year-old inmate Calum Foster was awaiting trial

but soon appeared to find himself the victim of an unfortunate

accident while asleep in his cell.

Mr Foster claimed that he had fallen from his top bunk

during the night and that he had been knocked unconscious,

suffering a severe head injury.

Two months later, whilst still inside,

Foster was reading a newspaper in his cell

and spotted an injury claim solicitor's advert and suddenly saw

an opportunity to write himself what he imagined would be a blank cheque.

After contacting his new solicitors, a claim soon arrived at the prison.

Initially, it was the solicitor's letter that raised our suspicions.

They claimed that he had fallen out of his bed at nine o'clock

that morning, when we knew, looking from the records, that he

was due to attend a review for his behaviour at 10am that morning.

Alarm bells started to ring for the prison's litigation team

and a thorough investigation of the incident was launched.

Once we started to investigate the matter more thoroughly,

we actually discovered that Mr Foster was involved in an altercation

on the yard that afternoon.

He'd become extremely abusive towards staff, verbally abusive

and physically abusive and he had to be restrained.

After any such restraint, prisoners automatically are referred

to medical staff and thoroughly checked over.

After the incident, he was seen by a nurse who noted that he'd

received a small raised bump to the front of his head.

Foster realised there was an opportunity to exploit

his earlier injury and came up with a clever plan

to claim for a fall in his cell.

At least it would have been clever had Foster not

forgotten that is bump on the head had already been

noted in the medical records a few hours before.

The records showed that later that evening,

Mr Foster had in fact pressed his cell bell and raised the alarm

that he'd fallen from his top bunk.

Medical attention was sought for him

and a medical officer attended his cell.

It was noted that he did have a slight bump to the front of his head.

Foster's ridiculous lies were unravelling fast

and when interviewed by local police, he answered, "No comment,"

to all questions.

In a ground-breaking case,

Foster became only the second ever inmate in the country to be

charged with fraud offences committed from the inside.

Once again, he was heading for the dock at Manchester Crown Court.

Mr Foster never actually admitted to his attempt on fraud.

It was taken to trial

and he received nine months on top of his original sentence.

In court, a jury found Foster guilty

and the judge was damning in his verdict.

He told Foster:

I don't think this was a well-thought-out claim at all.

The fact that he was claiming for an injury that he'd already

sustained earlier in the same day and the record was there,

he did receive medical treatment for that injury, which he

knew of, makes it not a sophisticated attempt at all.

Foster was looking for a bumper payday, knowing that substantial

compensation had already been paid to prisoners, but his plan

backfired and, instead,

he was landed with an extra nine months inside.

The best thing about this job is successfully

defending against fraudulent claims, getting a brilliant outcome,

saving the taxpayer the money.

It was a really good feeling that we could get this guy prosecuted.

Still to come, the Asset Protection Unit

play cat and mouse with an evasive customer whose borrowed car

has crossed the point of no return.

If I think that there is a danger that vehicle might be stolen,

I will authorise a snatch-back, which is two of my staff

going to physically go and get the car back.

And an insider trader on the fiddle gets an unexpected

visit from the IFED team.

It wasn't long before Mr Clegg received the famous

knock on the door from IFED and his skulduggery was uncovered.

Crash-for-cash is becoming a major policing issue.

Currently, UK police forces are investigating 110

of these scams, across the country.

Reports claim that one in seven personal injury

claims are linked to deliberate crashes.

These crashes are designed to milk insurance companies of up to

£30,000 per crash.

It's big money and it's a serious danger to the public.

Britain's police forces are determined to put the brakes

on this type of crime, and Thames Valley Police is no exception.

Police! Open the door now, last chance!

Detective Inspector Louise Roddy, from Force CID, has a team

of 25 officers dealing with crimes from murder to blackmail and fraud.

We work closely with the Insurance Fraud Bureau

and the Crown Prosecution Service to make sure that we have got

a watertight case to present at court.

Second person in here.

But it's not just costing the insurers thousands.

These criminals are putting innocent lives at risk.

People are getting seriously hurt.

Unsuspecting members of the public are driving on busy roads and they'll

be involved in these accidents because they are targeted by

such an organised group, and that's why we're involved

in the investigation.

It's early morning at HQ.

After months of hard work, today is the start of an operation

designed to smash another suspected crash-for-cash gang

believed to be working in the area.

We want to send out a really clear message from Thames Valley Police

that these offences will be dealt with robustly,

that offenders will be arrested, and, at any opportunity,

we'll prosecute them.

Helping to take the fight to the suspected scammers

is Detective Sergeant Tony Maddison,

who quickly brings the officers up to speed.

Please expect the unexpected.

We don't know what exactly we're going to find.

What I will say is that, other than our objective,

our main arrest, which is highlighted in the arrest packs,

there could potentially be other offences disclosed.

The coppers begin to head out, ready to hit the suspected

fraudsters right where it hurts.

With five separate warrants served across multiple raids,

the Rapid Entry Team are called in to assist at every single address.

-Police officers. Open up!

-..at the address.

Police!

-Open your door, please!

-Clear.

You're under arrest on suspicion of fraud.

Three suspects have already been arrested

and taken away for further questioning.

Evidence has been seized at various premises during four multiple

raids so far.

With just one address left to target, the team are hopeful that

another suspected fraudster is about to be brought to

book by the police.

Sergeant Alex Clough is leading the raiding party into action.

We're off to conduct a warrant

and hopefully arrest for fraud offences, dangerous driving.

The intelligence we have got is that we're going to go and arrest a male.

That's the only male that we expect to find at the address.

The offences being committed, we're looking for documents,

insurance documents, passports, identification, mobile phones.

The warrant is going to be conducted as a door knock,

but if no-one answers, we have the powers to force entry.

Once again, the team

are assisted by rapid entry officers wearing protective clothing.

Their job is to gain entry to the building as quickly

and safely as possible, ensuring that suspects have no time

to dispose of incriminating evidence.

Hiya. It's the police. All right to come in?

We've got a warrant to search this property.

But not every door knock yields a result.

Hello, it's the police. Hello? Police. Is anyone here?

Hello, it's the police. Are you all right?

Officers check round the back just in case.

Who else is in the address? Who else is in here?

After looking over the premises for further occupants,

the officer runs a check to verify the identity of the male tenant.

We suspect there is a person living at this address that has

committed offences. Not you, but we still need to search the property.

We'll need to search the whole property in relation to the

offences of fraud, conspiracy to destroy debt or damage property

and also dangerous driving.

A thorough search is carried out across the house.

Detailed checks are made in bags, boxes,

drawers and cupboards in every room, making sure that no mattress

is left unturned in the hunt for evidence.

Getting letters like that, an address just down the road.

That's the suspect linked with these guys.

Has that got anything that could link them?

We've just found some sort of various letters regarding

financial arrangements relating to, either the landlord of this property

or the younger male occupant, but at a different address.

It may be that there's a group of addresses in the area where

people are moving around, so it could be relevant.

As the search for evidence continues,

the boys in blue check further documentation,

to try and confirm the details of all the occupants at the premises.

We've detained three persons, done some checks on them

and we're confident that they are not connected

to the person that we were after originally.

We've some valuable intelligence, but, unfortunately,

not the suspect that we were after.

This morning's search is over,

but contacting the owner of the property may yield further clues.

That's us done.

We've got some details of the landlord which we're going

to progress with to find out whether or not our suspect lived here,

and perhaps a forwarding address to where they've gone to.

Whilst this team didn't get to arrest their man...

the wider case remains under investigation and the police's

commitment to reduce crash-for-cash crime in the area continues.

In times of financial hardship, as the bills start piling up,

people begin to worry about keeping a roof over their heads.

Thankfully, for a relatively low sum each month, income protection

insurance is there to cover up to 70%

of earnings should you fall ill.

Especially useful if your job is more like a hobby

but relies on you being fit and well.

52-year-old professional Laurie Turner

was one of the lucky few that got to ply his trade

on the greens and fairways of Yorkshire,

whilst helping local golfers improve their game.

Unfortunately for Mr Turner, a debilitating knee problem

threatened to put paid to his ideal vocation,

and saw his golf career heading straight for the bunker.

The claim was that he was

unable to work, which involved teaching golf

and also playing golf on the pro circuit.

Luck was on his side. Turner had done the sensible thing

and already had income protection insurance.

Very soon after notifying insurers of his injury, he started to receive

monthly compensation payments.

The insurance company grew suspicious

because they received information that Mr Turner had been

working at a golf club and giving lessons to members of the public.

The insurance company called in a private investigator,

who promptly dusted down his clubs, picked up the phone

and booked himself in for an actual lesson with Mr Turner.

Despite the fact that Laurie Turner had a knee injury,

you can see that he's able to stand, swing a golf club

and it shows him receiving money at the end of the lesson.

With the lesson ended and his golf swing vastly improved,

the investigator passed the conclusive evidence

directly to IFED, the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department

at the City of London Police.

It was found that Laurie Turner was playing golf on the

Professional Golf Association Northern and Yorkshire Tours

and receiving money for entering and playing in tournaments

when also claiming on his insurance policy.

With the weight of the evidence stacking up against him,

Turner was well and truly in the rough.

IFED arrested Laurie Turner at a golf shop he was working at,

and he was prosecuted and charged with fraud by false representation.

Pleading guilty at Leeds Magistrates Court, he was ordered to carry out

140 hours of unpaid work and to repay over £8,000

that he had fraudulently claimed.

This type of insurance policy, income protection,

is really important for people if they should fall ill

and be unable to work, if they can't pay their mortgage.

Unfortunately, Laurie Turner abused this policy by continuing to

work and play golf and give golf lessons whilst receiving

money from the insurance company.

As any unlucky driver knows,

being left without a car after an unfortunate smash,

can leave you stuck indoors with the kids or unable to get to work.

Thanks to legislation for insurance policy holders,

a complimentary hire car is a real silver lining.

The main business of Accident Exchange is to provide hire

vehicles for people involved in non-fault accidents.

If you're involved in an accident that is not your fault,

Accident Exchange can provide you with a like-for-like replacement car.

Unfortunately, what's great news for motorists can also be

good news for fraudsters on the lookout for a free ride.

Within Accident Exchange, the Asset Protection Unit, or APU, help

keep a watchful eye on the fleet.

We have about 3,000 vehicles, mainly prestige vehicles,

and APU's main role is protecting those assets.

Once the client's vehicle is repaired and sent back,

they must return the replacement hire vehicle to the legal owners.

99% of customers give the vehicle back and there is no problem.

There's just the 1% where we need to take significant action.

When a customer fails to return the car and starts ignoring calls,

Neil is on placed on red alert.

If they continue to drive, they'll be breaking

the law, as the insurance is now invalid.

There's an increased chance the vehicle may go missing or be

passed to a third party.

If I think that there is a danger that vehicle might be stolen,

then I will authorise a snatch-back, which is two of my staff

go in to physically go and get the car back.

Snatch-backs are when the car's legal owners use a spare key to

take the vehicle back directly from its location.

Used as a last resort, this type of operation always carries

an element of risk.

It's 6am.

It's been a very early start for APU's Matt Sperryn

and his colleague Erin Sims, who set off from HQ

at 3 o'clock this morning.

They're making their way to the family home of a client,

who hasn't returned a vehicle to Accident Exchange.

The hire company who have let the vehicle out,

they've been trying to communicate with these people for quite

some time to get the vehicle back.

Their period of hire has ended but now they've got to the

point where they can't communicate with clients.

They've been trying to call them, there's no answers,

they won't reply to voice mails, e-mails, letters, texts

or whatever else has been sent to them.

So the only option that has been left to them

to protect their assets, is to recover the vehicle.

They've given us the basic details where these people are,

we've done some background checks

and it's felt that the safest and easiest and best way to

resolve the situation is to get the vehicle back in a covert manner,

hence the reason that we've got the spare keys.

We can use technology within the vehicle to see where it's

parking overnight, to see what sort of time it's started to be moved

in the morning.

Should they be true to form, the vehicle should be parked there now,

when we get there. Hopefully it won't be in a gated property

and we'll be able to just get in it and scoot away.

As well as the all-important spare key,

Matt has some clever tracker technology at his disposal.

Using a smartphone app, he pinpoints the vehicle's exact location.

It's only a very small side street, so...

Matt doesn't know what to expect when he attempts to snatch

the car back from the client's drive.

Yes, it's this right, here, just behind this van.

With an eyeball on the vehicle,

it's important they position themselves for a quick getaway.

Go in there, turn round and you can just sit in the entrance here,

ready to go and you can see down there.

I can see the vehicle there.

You'll be able to see me get into it. There.

Matt's finally located the car, and snatch-back is go, go, go.

The vehicle is parked up this side street opposite us now.

It seems fairly open, it's not gated.

We may have to reverse so I don't think we're going to get time

to do a three-point turn, so we're just going to get in there,

get in as quick as we can and get on the main road and get away.

Time is of the essence.

Now he's in, the last thing he wants to do is stall it!

Matt has to be careful not to wake the client,

who's sleeping like a baby.

He has to be quick, and discreet.

Snatch-back complete!

Successful recovery.

It's always difficult when we're getting vehicles

back from a side road, side street, you've got to manoeuvre something

out, and this is quite a big vehicle,

so managed to get out there. No damage.

This is probably, what? £30,000 worth of someone's hard-earned money

and if it was 30 grand in cash in a bag,

we'll all be jumping up and down trying to get it back.

It's the same principle for me, to be honest.

They might not care about it, it might not be their vehicle,

but it is someone's vehicle.

It's the livelihood of the business who owned the vehicle

and it's in everybody's best interest to get it back unscathed.

One of the common hazards of the job is being pulled

over by the boys in blue for suspected car theft.

Once he's a safe distance from the location of the recovered

vehicle, Matt contacts the police in case the clients report

the vehicle as stolen.

It's just to let you know that we do now have possession of that vehicle.

If somebody does ring up enquiring about it, if they could be directed

to ring the main office number, that would be fantastic, thank you.

Matt gives the car a once-over...

..noting the vehicle's condition and making a photographic record

of the contents.

The car itself is in a complete state.

There are sweet wrappers everywhere, drinks bottles, crisps.

It obviously hasn't been cleaned inside or out.

There is a lot of property in the boot,

which tends to suggest two things.

One, that they weren't bothered about the vehicle, it's not theirs,

they don't want to treat it like it was their own, and that generally

they didn't have any intention of handing the vehicle back.

Unfortunately for Accident Exchange, the costs are still rising.

Despite recovering their valuable asset, the car needs petrol to

get to HQ, and they'll still have to pay to return the car's

contents to the client.

I think they feel it's a victimless crime.

They look upon hire companies or credit hire or whoever

they've had the vehicle from and they'll look at the business,

especially if it's a large national company or international company,

and they'll say, "Well, they've got hundreds and thousands of cars.

"It doesn't matter to them."

Whereas the truth of the matter is it is valuable to someone, it is

£30,000 worth of vehicle, it does make a business,

however many pounds a day on rent,

and they can't do that whilst people like this are holding on to it.

The absent-minded customer will soon have their property returned,

but their free ride at the insurer's expense is over.

It's really rewarding to get a vehicle back.

It's got financial implications for the people that own the vehicle.

We've helped save them a lot of money, hopefully.

We've got back a valuable asset for them

and at the end of the day,

it's quite a nice feeling to know that we might have

inconvenienced the client somewhat,

which is actions they brought on themselves, at the end of the day.

Insurance fraud comes in all shapes and sizes.

It's committed by a whole variety of people,

regardless of background or profession.

From labourers to doctors and from lawyers to footballers,

it's always surprising to hear who's on the take.

Even more shocking is when it happens from within the very

area of business trying so hard to stamp it out,

the insurance industry.

Mr Clegg was employed by one of the main insurers as an insurance

claims manager.

His day-to-day role would have been examining claims that

come into the company and sorting those out,

ones that should be paid out

and ones that perhaps require a bit more scrutiny before they get paid.

Now firmly established as the head of the claims team, it didn't

take long before Michael Clegg abused his position of trust.

He was soon turning his daily toil in the office to his own

financial advantage.

Mr Clegg recruited three of his friends and got them

to submit three separate fraudulent claims,

each for medical disabilities and incidences.

He oversaw each one through the system

and made sure that claim was paid out back to his friend.

Fraudster Clegg cooked the books

so that three separate claims were paid out over a five-month period.

The whole scam depended on Mr Clegg being in the position within

the company that he was, and him overseeing the checks and balances

that would have kicked in, and making sure the claims were paid out.

This happened once, twice, three times. Total amount that was

stolen from the company, £34,000, of which Mr Clegg himself pocketed

14,000 and the remaining 20,000 was split between his three friends.

His employer soon noticed the irregular payments,

and got on the phone to IFED,

the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department

at the City of London Police.

It wasn't long before Mr Clegg received the famous knock on the door

from IFED and his skulduggery was uncovered.

Within weeks, IFED made in-depth enquiries and began to investigate

the fraudulent claims.

The enquiry quickly uncovered the motive behind Mr Clegg's criminality.

Mr Clegg clearly found himself in a vulnerable

position, in the fact that he had £10,000 worth of gambling debts, and

rather than work out a plan to pay them back as any normal person would,

he thought differently and invented this scam,

roping in three of his friends to defraud his own employers of £34,000.

As Clegg soon found out, fraud is never the easy solution to clearing

a string of bad debts.

Unfortunately for Mr Clegg, this grand plan fell flat on its face

and led to Mr Clegg being arrested along with his three friends.

Michael Clegg and his accomplices soon found themselves

on trial at Manchester Crown Court.

Clegg pleaded guilty to fraud and was given

a two-year suspended sentence.

His three fraudulent friends were given community orders

of over 100 hours each for their part in the scam.

I deal with all types of insurance fraud - big,

small, from organised criminals to one-off opportunistic offenders.

However, it is disappointing when we do occasionally come

across what we call an internal fraud.

It's someone from within the company that is supposed to be helping us

prevent and detect insurance fraud, are actually doing it themselves.

Fortunately, it's quite rare, but when it does happen,

IFED, along with the insurer, will take the necessary action.