Browse content similar to Episode 9. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Insurance fraud in the UK has hit epidemic levels. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
It's costing us over £1 billion every year. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
That's almost £3.5 million every day. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:11 | |
Deliberate crashes, bogus personal injuries, even phantom pets. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:18 | |
The fraudsters are risking more and more to make a quick killing | 0:00:19 | 0:00:23 | |
and every year, it's adding over £50 to your insurance bill. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:27 | |
But insurers are fighting back, | 0:00:27 | 0:00:29 | |
exposing just under 15 fake claims every hour. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:33 | |
Armed with covert surveillance systems... | 0:00:33 | 0:00:35 | |
Subject out the vehicle. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:38 | |
..sophisticated data-analysis techniques... | 0:00:38 | 0:00:40 | |
..and a number of highly skilled police units... | 0:00:43 | 0:00:45 | |
Police! Don't move! Stay where you are! | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
..they're catching the criminals red-handed. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
Just don't lie to us. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:51 | |
All those con men, scammers and cheats on the fiddle | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
are now caught in the act and claimed and shamed. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
Coming up, one fraudster performs a vanishing act. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
She was wanted by all 43 police forces and was literally on the run. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:15 | |
A victim of a road traffic accident has a change of heart. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:18 | |
He'd obviously been allured | 0:01:18 | 0:01:20 | |
to the money that had been put aside for him. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:22 | |
And RSA encounter the world's unluckiest dog owners. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
When you looked at the invoices and the supporting documentation, | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
they didn't really stack up. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
It is estimated that there were around four million | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
offences of theft in the UK last year. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
So it goes without saying that insuring your belongings is | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
something worth doing. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
Whether you bought something outright, or are just hiring it, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
insurance is there to protect you if things go walkies. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
But unfortunately, not all claims are what they appear | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
and that's where claim validations specialists like i-Cog come in. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:03 | |
Managing director Tara Shelton's previous | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
experience as a police officer and psychologist came in handy | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
when she dealt with a claim from a woman named Diane Thompson | 0:02:10 | 0:02:14 | |
who had become a victim of a mugging. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:16 | |
She was in a park in London | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
and she had been approached by three males who robbed her of six | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
cases of photographic equipment that she'd hired to make a music video. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:31 | |
The equipment in total was worth £150,000. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:37 | |
£150,000 - clearly this wasn't your average camera. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:42 | |
It's more to do with Hollywood blockbuster movies - | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
that's the type of camera it is. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:47 | |
Unsurprisingly, with a claim of that size, the insurance company | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
were keen for Tara to find out more. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
So she gave Diane a call. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:55 | |
With a long career as an accountant and a real passion for professional | 0:03:26 | 0:03:30 | |
filming, spending 150 grand on her kit wasn't that far-fetched. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:35 | |
I initially asked Diane Thompson to just tell me | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
in detail exactly what happened. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:40 | |
M'hm. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:55 | |
With someone as passionate about high-definition images | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
as Diane obviously was, you'd expect her descriptions to be spot-on. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:10 | |
I separated each of the three offenders, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
if you like, and asked her to describe them. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
OK. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:30 | |
She quite clearly faltered at that point and strangely enough, | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
all three looked exactly the same and were all wearing exactly the same clothing. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:52 | |
This certainly does sound interesting. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:13 | |
M'hm. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:21 | |
Mugged and no mobile phone - Diane really was having a bad day. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:26 | |
And her bad luck didn't end there, | 0:05:37 | 0:05:39 | |
as Diane wasn't able to find the boys in blue anywhere. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:43 | |
The account of her being approached by three males who were all | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
dressed the same and all looked the same, | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
and then her actions after the theft, | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
of racing around London for five hours in a car | 0:05:52 | 0:05:56 | |
to report it to the police but every police station | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
that she visited was closed, just didn't ring true. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:03 | |
One hell of a story, more like - and unfortunately for Diane, | 0:06:05 | 0:06:08 | |
the longer the call went on, the more her account | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
sounded like fiction rather than fact. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
When I relayed my concerns to Diane, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
it was quite interesting - | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
she took on a persona of quite an uneducated, weak female | 0:06:19 | 0:06:24 | |
who didn't understand. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:26 | |
She might have struggled to find the police on the day | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
but fortunately for Diane, she was now speaking to the perfect person. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:39 | |
Well, it's not every day you have a former detective | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
investigating your case. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:56 | |
That can only be a good thing, can't it? | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
After my phone call with Diane, it was very important at that stage | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
just to follow the normal insurance process. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
We had to meet Diane and I invited the insurer to come with me and take | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
a statement from her and actually get her to sign that statement. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:14 | |
But when Tara arrived at the address Diane had given, | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
the case took a shocking twist. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:20 | |
When I actually turned up at her home address, | 0:07:22 | 0:07:25 | |
not only was she not there, but she had...actually hadn't been | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
living at that address for probably about three months at that time. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
Unfortunately, the only way for her to get out the situation | 0:07:31 | 0:07:35 | |
was to go on the run. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:36 | |
This really is starting to sound like a Hollywood plot | 0:07:38 | 0:07:42 | |
and Tara thinks she may know exactly why Diane did a runner. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:46 | |
Her motivation for disappearing was very, very clear to me, | 0:07:46 | 0:07:50 | |
she'd been detected. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:52 | |
Diane Thompson was wanted by all 43 police forces | 0:07:52 | 0:07:57 | |
and was literally on the run. | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
With the country's police force on the lookout for Diane, | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
Tara and her team turned their attention to the stolen kit. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:06 | |
In the media industry, there's actually an intelligence | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
database where you can place potentially stolen equipment | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
to alert the industry that any equipment that comes into their | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
hands with this particular serial number has been reported as stolen. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:21 | |
Thanks to this database, the plot thickened even further. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
A few days later, um, | 0:08:25 | 0:08:27 | |
a music producer in Italy contacted the Metropolitan police | 0:08:27 | 0:08:33 | |
and said, "I have that camera in my hands as we speak." | 0:08:33 | 0:08:37 | |
So the kit that our pretend producer had flogged abroad was | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
returned to the hire company. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:43 | |
But finding Diane wasn't so easy | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
and she stayed missing for over a year | 0:08:47 | 0:08:50 | |
until the police had a remarkable stroke of luck. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:52 | |
The local policing team just happened to be passing one | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
of her old addresses and she just happened to be standing outside. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:01 | |
I mean, it was...it was literally that random, and she was arrested | 0:09:01 | 0:09:06 | |
and conveyed straight to Holloway on a remand warrant pending trial. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:11 | |
She may have been a phoney producer | 0:09:12 | 0:09:14 | |
but Diane still had one final plot twist up her sleeve. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
When I found out that Diane had gone against her advice from her | 0:09:18 | 0:09:24 | |
own counsel and decided to plead not guilty I was...I was utterly amazed. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:30 | |
It might have taken a year to track Diane down | 0:09:30 | 0:09:32 | |
but justice was served rather more swiftly. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:35 | |
And I was absolutely delighted when within nine minutes, the jury | 0:09:35 | 0:09:40 | |
unanimously found Diane Thompson guilty. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
Diane Thompson had claimed for over £150,000 of equipment, but instead | 0:09:43 | 0:09:48 | |
of a career behind the camera, she got over two years behind bars. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:53 | |
I think it's fair to say Diane Thompson thought | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
she was cleverer than she was and that first phone call | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
I had with her without question identified that she wasn't | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
going to get away with this story, but because she was in so deep, | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
and was committed to her story at that time, she really had no choice | 0:10:05 | 0:10:09 | |
but to follow it through or to admit the truth, and she was never going | 0:10:09 | 0:10:14 | |
to admit the truth, and to this day, she still doesn't admit the truth. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:18 | |
Still to come, there's a fiery case of whodunnit. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
What's quite clear is that he deliberately started the fire | 0:10:27 | 0:10:31 | |
and left it to burn out. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
And some sick puppies need looking at. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:36 | |
Either the Staffords were the unluckiest dog owners in the world, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
or else there is something not quite right about this claim. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
DOG WHIMPERS | 0:10:43 | 0:10:45 | |
With around 30 million cars on UK roads, it's unfortunately | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
inevitable that accidents happen from time to time. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
But thankfully, not all accidents are severe. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
Colin Bushell of DWF knows as well as anyone that no matter how | 0:11:01 | 0:11:05 | |
big or small a claim may be, they all need investigating - | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
even if it involves parked vehicles. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:11 | |
The accident itself is quite straightforward. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
The claimant's coming along a minor road | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
and looks to park up on the side of the road. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
The defendant is actually parked to his left, | 0:11:19 | 0:11:21 | |
and he's looking to come onto the main road itself | 0:11:21 | 0:11:23 | |
and there's a very minor bump between the two cars. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
A minor bump - that sounds like it should be a quick | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
and easy claim to settle. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:30 | |
This was a straightforward case. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
LV were looking to make payments | 0:11:32 | 0:11:33 | |
in respect to the vehicle damage, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
so there were no issues from their perspective. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:37 | |
Ursula Jallow and her team at LV dealt with the claim. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
He told us about somebody who'd actually rung him | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
earlier in the morning, letting him know that they knew that he'd | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
had an accident and that actually he was entitled to some money. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:55 | |
To the claimant's credit, he actually said that he had a pre-existing condition. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:18 | |
As an insurance company, this was great, to hear a consumer | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
telling us this, because that tells us actually the message is | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
getting across that it's not OK to put a fraudulent whiplash claim | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
through when actually there's nothing wrong with you. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
And so actually when we were hearing this from our third party, it was very, very refreshing. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:45 | |
And this upstanding man wasn't exactly shy | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
about sharing his feelings about opportunistic claimants. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
Having had the conversation with the third party, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
we then surprisingly had a claim through from a solicitor's acting on behalf of him. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:08 | |
When investigators read through the document, it seemed to tell | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
a different story altogether. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
He has a neck injury which is described as being severe | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
and a lower-back injury, which again is severe. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
Hang on. The last time they spoke to him, he was strongly against bogus claims. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:24 | |
He'd obviously been allured to the money that had been put aside for him. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
As the insurers continued to read on, | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
it went from surprising to shocking. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:44 | |
Very specifically within the medical report | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
is reference to having suffered severe shock, | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
and there was actually severe travel fear included | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
within the medical report itself. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:55 | |
"Travel fear"? | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
That's a new one on me. | 0:13:57 | 0:13:58 | |
This chap really had done a complete U-turn. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
When you look at and consider the evidence or the tone very much | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
within the initial phone call, | 0:14:05 | 0:14:07 | |
this gentleman doesn't come across as somebody who is | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
in any way, shape or form suffering from shock. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
He comes across as a very calm, considered gentleman. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
So, even though this claimant's injuries seemed to have changed | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
drastically, unbelievably he still stuck to his story. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:30 | |
Both parties decided to run this to trial. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
If the claimant were to succeed, he's looking at the value | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
of his claim to be around £3,500. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
Armed with the evidence from the phone call, | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
LV and DWF were more than happy to go to court. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
The call recording is fairly unique. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
It's not often you're able to bring that type of evidence | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
to a judge's attention. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:52 | |
Above all else, the phone-call evidence proved one thing. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:56 | |
First and foremost, you've told us you weren't injured. | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
You're now telling us you are. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
His story-changing antics didn't help him | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
when the time came to stand in front of the judge. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
So, at trial, I think it's fair to say that the claimant came across | 0:15:10 | 0:15:14 | |
very poorly and had quite a bad day out, to be honest with you. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
The extent of his cross-examination was lengthy | 0:15:17 | 0:15:21 | |
and he was taken to all of the inconsistencies, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
which were numerous. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
A good example would be the fact that the claimant forgot | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
he'd actually suffered, or allegedly suffered, a neck injury. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:30 | |
That was something he had to try and explain away in the face of the court to the judge. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:33 | |
But, unlike our claimant, | 0:15:33 | 0:15:35 | |
the judge on this case only says what he means. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
So, the outcome of the hearing itself is really straightforward. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
The claimant failed on every aspect of his claim, | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
so, it was dismissed in full. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
And although this claimant lost his case, | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
he should count himself fortunate. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
I'd suggest the claimant was actually quite lucky. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:55 | |
The court dismissed his case, but took no further steps. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
On a different day before a different judge, | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
he may well have been found to have been fundamentally dishonest. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
Or, a worse case scenario, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:05 | |
he could be held to be in contempt. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
Think of that as the court equivalent of three points. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:12 | |
If we actually look at the original phone call itself, | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
this gentleman acknowledges that the types of individuals | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
who are going to pursue exaggerated claims are a scourge. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:22 | |
Apart from the "should be shot" bit, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
incredibly, this claimant has hit the nail on the head. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
And that is exactly why this issue has to be investigated, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
those making spurious, invalid, exaggerated claims | 0:16:38 | 0:16:42 | |
are the root cause of this increased premium. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
Pets can be a great addition to the home. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
In fact, it's estimated that 12 million UK households have them. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
And the most popular pet by a long way is, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
you've guessed it - | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
dogs, with 8.5 million nationwide. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
And for some homes, one dog just isn't enough, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
as John Beadle discovered when RSA received a call | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
from a canine-loving couple. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:17 | |
The Staffords took out three policies with us. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:21 | |
The first policy was for a dog called Buster. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:26 | |
Unfortunately, illness and injury affect most pets at some point | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
and, sadly, Buster was no different. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:32 | |
Buster the dog sadly broke his leg. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
So, we funded the treatment | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
for his broken leg... | 0:17:38 | 0:17:39 | |
which then developed into cancer, | 0:17:39 | 0:17:43 | |
and that ultimately led to him having to have his leg amputated, | 0:17:43 | 0:17:49 | |
and then, very sadly, ultimately, he had to be put to sleep. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:53 | |
Losing a pet can be an extremely upsetting experience. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
But, fortunately, the Stafford family were covered. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
The thing with pet insurance is, and I'm a dog owner, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:05 | |
is you hope you never have to use your pet insurance, | 0:18:05 | 0:18:09 | |
but, sadly, sometimes you do. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
Following Buster's passing, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:16 | |
Mr and Mrs Stafford did what many dog lovers would do - | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
they bought another canine companion. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
They subsequently took out another policy for a dog called Angel. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:27 | |
And then Angel also developed a form of cancer. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:32 | |
Visits to the vet's aren't cheap, and so the Stafford family | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
quickly racked up thousands of pounds' worth of vet bills. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
And, of course, all these claims we were paying in good faith | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
because they were all supported by a documentation from the vets | 0:18:44 | 0:18:49 | |
and invoices. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
With their recent upsetting losses in mind, the Stafford family | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
decided to cheer themselves up with a third dog, Winston. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
Winston then developed cancer. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
Three dogs with cancer? | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
This is starting to sound like Groundhog Day. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
We were entitled to think that either | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
the Staffords were the unluckiest dog owners in the world | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
with all three of their poor animals having developed cancer, | 0:19:14 | 0:19:18 | |
or else there was something not quite right about this claim. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:21 | |
And reading Mr and Mrs Stafford's paperwork did little to settle | 0:19:21 | 0:19:25 | |
the investigators' concerns. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:27 | |
Our fraud investigators, when they began to look at this case, | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
and when you looked at the invoices, | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
and the supporting documentation, | 0:19:33 | 0:19:34 | |
they didn't really stack up. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
They didn't look as professional as they perhaps should have done. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:40 | |
With concerns about Mr and Mrs Stafford's numerous | 0:19:40 | 0:19:42 | |
pet insurance claims, | 0:19:42 | 0:19:44 | |
RSA checked the authenticity of the documents. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
And, of course, when we went and visited the vets | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
they said they'd never created any of this documentation | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
or the stamps, and the signatures used were all fraudulent. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:57 | |
Knowing that the documents were dodgy, RSA passed the case on to the | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
City of London Police's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:07 | |
After investigating the case, | 0:20:08 | 0:20:10 | |
Ifed officers arrested Mr and Mrs Stafford, | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
and charged them with conspiracy to commit fraud | 0:20:13 | 0:20:15 | |
by false representation. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:17 | |
And when the case got to court, | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
the judge was less than impressed with the couple's shaggy dog story. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
We were pleased with the sentence handed down to the Staffords. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
They didn't go to prison, but they got a substantial | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
suspended prison sentence, | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
plus a community service order. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
The couple were also ordered to repay every penny | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
of the eight grand they'd fraudulently received. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
They probably thought it was easy, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
that insurers don't have any controls around this, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
and they were probably motivated by greed. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
So, my message to the people is, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
we're not stupid, | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
and you will get caught. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:56 | |
So, all three of Mr and Mrs Stafford's | 0:20:57 | 0:20:59 | |
pet insurance claims were bogus. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
But whatever happened to their dogs? | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
Angel and Winston didn't exist at all. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
So, if Angel and Winston were phantom pooches, what about Buster? | 0:21:07 | 0:21:12 | |
There is a kind of nice postscript to this story, | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
because when we unravelled this series of claims as a fraud, | 0:21:16 | 0:21:21 | |
we actually saw Buster, who was alive and well, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:26 | |
and I can assure you he had all four legs still on him. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
The UK's fire and rescue services attend over 200,000 fires | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
every year. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
But as Tom Gardiner from Aviva knows only too well, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
some fire-related insurance claims are less smoky and more hokey, | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
particularly when the police are giving you the heads up | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
on a suspicious claim. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:56 | |
Mr Lee made a claim for fire damage to his Ford Transit van, | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
which was found burnt out in a car park whilst it was unattended. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:07 | |
Right from the start, | 0:22:21 | 0:22:22 | |
doubts were raised about Mr Lee's version of events. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
Very quickly, we had a number of concerns | 0:22:25 | 0:22:29 | |
about the claim. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:30 | |
The fire appeared to have been deliberately started | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
in the passenger seat, | 0:22:33 | 0:22:35 | |
but the vehicle was found locked, | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
and he also had burns to his hands. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
It certainly sounds suspicious. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
But Mr Lee had an explanation. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
The police clearly thought the burns to Mr Lee's hands | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
meant that he had something to do with the fire himself. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
He sought to explain that as being as a result of handling weedkiller. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:06 | |
It wasn't looking good for Mr Lee. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
But then Aviva discovered something that added even more | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
fuel to the fire. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:13 | |
The decisive piece of evidence, and the nail in the coffin, | 0:23:15 | 0:23:19 | |
was CCTV coverage at the car park, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
which Mr Lee had overlooked, | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
but which actually showed him driving the vehicle, on fire, | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
into the car park. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:30 | |
He later tried to explain that as being fog or mist, | 0:23:31 | 0:23:34 | |
but which the police were able to rule out | 0:23:34 | 0:23:37 | |
and said that the weather was clear. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
With alarm bells well and truly ringing, | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
Aviva were confident they now knew the facts. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
I think what's quite clear is that Mr Lee deliberately started | 0:23:45 | 0:23:50 | |
the fire in the vehicle himself, | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
drove it to the car park, | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
locked it and left it to burn out. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
Realising his claim was up in smoke, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:02 | |
Mr Lee started having second thoughts. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
Eight days after he'd reported the incident, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
Mr Lee telephoned Aviva wanting to withdraw the claim. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:14 | |
Unfortunately what he didn't realise was | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
withdrawing a claim wouldn't take away the crime. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
Faced with the evidence against him in court, | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
Mr Lee took a turn for the worse. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
At the trial, during evidence, when presented with the CCTV images, | 0:24:42 | 0:24:47 | |
he suddenly alleged chest pains, | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
and, as a result, the trial was adjourned | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
while an ambulance attended. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
Thankfully, the chest pains didn't last, | 0:24:57 | 0:24:59 | |
and it wasn't long before the trial resumed. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:02 | |
Mr Lee finally received a suspended sentence of 16 weeks. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:07 | |
So, anyone thinking they can just walk away from this type | 0:25:07 | 0:25:10 | |
of fraudulent claim is risking more than just burnt fingers. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:14 | |
I think the lesson is that submitting fraudulent claims | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
isn't the solution, because you will get caught, you will get prosecuted. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:25 | |
Mr Lee will find it very difficult to access financial products | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
in the future, and instead of being a lot better off, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
he's a lot worse off. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:34 | |
If you think that man's attempt to cash in was extreme, then buckle up. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:47 | |
Because outside the British Isles, | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
there are people whose attempts to cash in on insurance payouts | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
go from ridiculously shocking... | 0:25:53 | 0:25:55 | |
to just plain stupid. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:56 | |
Let's file that one under "ridiculous", shall we? | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
And the risk some people are willing to go to can be frightening. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
Even your mate is leaving you alone on that one. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:15 | |
Taxi! | 0:26:18 | 0:26:19 | |
Getting caught faking a personal injury claim can be pretty serious, | 0:26:20 | 0:26:24 | |
but to some it's worth the risk. | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
But not worth making an effort, though, I see. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
Here's a chap who seems happy to show you how it's done. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
That'll leave a mark. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:38 | |
Maybe next time this young man will think twice before he throws | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
himself in front of a moving car. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
That looks like more of a snooze than a bruise. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:50 | |
On your bike! | 0:26:50 | 0:26:52 | |
Yep, when it comes down to it, to some people it doesn't matter | 0:26:52 | 0:26:55 | |
if it's on a slow street... | 0:26:55 | 0:26:57 | |
or a hurtling highway. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
Forget the payout, you're lucky to leave this scam with your life. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
Ludicrous claims happen all over the world, | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
but if that isn't scary enough, | 0:27:11 | 0:27:12 | |
some people are taking their chances and falling in front of moving cars | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
here in the UK, too, | 0:27:16 | 0:27:17 | |
as this unlucky learner driver found out. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
Yep, this looks like a perfect road to practise the old | 0:27:21 | 0:27:23 | |
three-point turn. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
What's he doing? | 0:27:29 | 0:27:30 | |
That's nice of him. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:35 | |
Oh, he's back. Maybe he's going to give the windscreen a clean? | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
-Ah! -BLEEP! | 0:27:42 | 0:27:44 | |
Comfortable down there, are you? | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
I want to see that again. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
Ah! | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
Put it in reverse, would you? | 0:27:51 | 0:27:52 | |
Here he comes... | 0:27:52 | 0:27:53 | |
Oh, there you go. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:56 | |
Help! | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
Thankfully, this man walked away and didn't submit an insurance claim. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 |