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Insurance fraud has reached epidemic levels in the UK. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
It's costing us more than £1.3 billion every year. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:14 | |
That's almost 3.6 million every day. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
Deliberate crashes, bogus personal injuries, even phantom pets. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:24 | |
The fraudsters are risking more and more to make a quick killing, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
and every year it's adding around £50 to your insurance bill. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:33 | |
But insurers are fighting back, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:36 | |
exposing just under 15 fake claims every hour. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:39 | |
Armed with covert surveillance systems... | 0:00:39 | 0:00:41 | |
That's the subject out of the vehicle. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
..sophisticated data analysis techniques... | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
..and a number of highly skilled police units... | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
Police, don't move, stay where you are! | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
..they're catching the criminals red-handed. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
Just don't lie to us. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:56 | |
All those conmen, scammers and cheats on the fiddle are now | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
caught in the act and Claimed and Shamed. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
A lorry driver claiming he can't walk pushes the boat out | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
with his false claim. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
What you can actually see in this first period of surveillance | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
is Mr Heffer walking quite significant distances, | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
but, in addition to that, working on this fishing vessel as well. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
A criminal gang risks the lives of innocent motorists by | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
deliberately causing car crashes. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
They prefer to look for people who are going to be insured, | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
commercial vehicles, people with children in the cars. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:39 | |
And a claimant who tries to board a moving bus is tripped up by CCTV. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:44 | |
What we actually see when we're looking at the footage is | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
a gentleman sprinting like a gazelle to try and get on the bus. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:52 | |
He lunges majestically at the last minute. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
Every year, an estimated 4.1 million working days are lost | 0:01:59 | 0:02:03 | |
due to workplace injuries. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:05 | |
Whether it's a minor mishap or a life-threatening accident, | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
the goal for most of us is to get better and get back to work. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:12 | |
Now, if your employer is to blame for your accident, | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
you have the right to seek fair compensation. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
However, this right is being exploited by fraudsters | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
who fake or exaggerate injuries in a bid for early retirement. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:25 | |
It's Rob Smith-Wright's job to suss out the real claims | 0:02:28 | 0:02:32 | |
from the rogue ones. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:33 | |
Back in 2009, he was handed what appeared to be an everyday claim. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
Mr Heffer was an employee at one of our policyholders. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
He claimed that when he was claiming into the cab of | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
a heavy goods vehicle, the tread plate that he was stepping onto | 0:02:46 | 0:02:49 | |
gave way, and he fell down to the floor, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
injuring his back and left leg. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:54 | |
Although Mr Heffer's injuries were significant, | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
he was expected to make a full recovery. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
After investigation, | 0:03:02 | 0:03:03 | |
the footplate that caused the accident was found to be faulty. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:07 | |
His employer admitted liability and awaited the claim. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
But when it came in, there was something of a shock. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
For an injury of this kind, sort of a simple back injury, | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
injury to a left leg, | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
you would've expected some kind of compensation to the value of | 0:03:21 | 0:03:26 | |
around about £3,000-£5,000, | 0:03:26 | 0:03:28 | |
so when Mr Heffer served his schedule of damages, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
it was served to the value of £400,000, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:34 | |
which would have been clearly things like lost earnings, | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
future lost earnings, care, future care and also provisions | 0:03:37 | 0:03:41 | |
that would allow him to lead a normal life. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
That's a whopping ten times more than expected and suggested that | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
Mr Heffer's injuries were far more serious than first thought. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:52 | |
So, when Mr Heffer was being interviewed by the pain specialist, | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
he described that he was severely restricted in all | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
forms of mobility, he was unable to walk significant distances. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
At this point he was also claiming that he was using walking sticks. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:06 | |
He wasn't able to drive. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
He had severe pain in his left leg radiating down from his back. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
He also described that actually, medication relief that | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
he was given for the pain was having no effect. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
It sounded like Mr Heffer had suffered debilitating injuries | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
as well as losing his livelihood, | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
which had severely impacted on his quality of life. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
But, given the nature of the accident, | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
something just wasn't adding up. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
During the course of our investigations with | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
Mr Heffer's solicitors, | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
we were being told that Mr Heffer was suffering severe | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
restrictions and limitations as a result of the injuries, | 0:04:40 | 0:04:45 | |
which weren't really in-keeping with the circumstances that | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
were described to us. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:49 | |
We decided at that point that further investigations | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
would be needed because of those general red flags. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
After taking a closer look at the case, a crucial decision was | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
made which Rob and his team hoped would address their doubts. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
We undertook some general desktop profiling, which was starting | 0:05:05 | 0:05:08 | |
to reveal some inconsistencies in the account, certainly. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:12 | |
We decided at that point that a period of surveillance would help | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
us identify any inconsistencies that Mr Heffer may have been telling us. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:20 | |
It would be a period of surveillance that would last for over | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
three years, testing the commitment and patience of Rob's team. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:29 | |
The truth would slowly but most definitely reveal itself. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
What you can actually see in this first period of surveillance | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
is Mr Heffer walking quite significant distances, | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
but in addition to that, working on this fishing vessel as well. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
So, while claiming he could barely walk, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
his sea legs appear to be just fine. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
The second period of surveillance that we undertook here, again, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
in direct contradiction to what he was telling the medical experts, | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
you can see that Mr Heffer has undertaken quite | 0:05:57 | 0:05:59 | |
a significant walk, around about 20 minutes, | 0:05:59 | 0:06:01 | |
to his local post office, where he's telling the medical expert | 0:06:01 | 0:06:04 | |
he's unable to walk any kind of significant distances. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
Yep, previously he couldn't manage 100 yards because of the pain. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:12 | |
Now he was going miles to post his mail. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
Generally speaking, you would have expected the surveillance | 0:06:15 | 0:06:18 | |
to show someone who was having problems with his mobility, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
but the surveillance footage seems to indicate that there is | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
no problems at all and he is in fact walking quite freely. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
Free as a bird and apparently without a care in the world. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
My initial reaction on seeing this is one of surprise, | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
considering the level of disability and restriction that we were | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
being told that Mr Heffer was suffering. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
With Heffer's energetic exploits and maritime mischief captured on | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
camera, the damning evidence was disclosed to his solicitor. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:50 | |
It was very clear at this point that we had discovered | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
an insurance fraud. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:56 | |
Very shortly afterwards, Mr Heffer's solicitor came off record | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
for him, leaving him as a litigant in person. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
I think, at that point, if your solicitor's no longer | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
wanting to act for you, you have to say the game was very much up. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
The game may have been up for Heffer, | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
but Rob and his investigative team were just getting started. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
We were very pleased that Mr Heffer had decided | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
to discontinue his claim. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
However, again, | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
we wanted to look at other ways in which we could send | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
a very strong deterrent message to someone who was prepared to | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
grossly exaggerate what looked like a genuine injury. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
Given the statements that Mr Heffer had made to the court, | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
and these would have been statements of truth that | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
he would have signed and he had directly lied in those, we decided | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
that the best course of action was to take a Contempt of Court route. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
And it wouldn't be long before Heffer found himself in | 0:07:47 | 0:07:50 | |
a dry dock, having to explain his open water adventures. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
So, Mr Heffer was summoned to appear at Exeter Crown Court | 0:07:54 | 0:07:59 | |
in December 2015. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:00 | |
He claimed that the surveillance evidence was only really | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
showing him on good days, because he'd been taking painkilling | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
medication, but if we referred back to what | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
he actually told the pain specialist, he suggested that | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
the medication was having no effect on reducing his level of pain. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
It had been a very lengthy process to bring Heffer to justice. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
But when the case finally reached court, it was watertight. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
The judge found him in contempt of court and described him as | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
abusing the civil procedure rules as a means to obtain financial | 0:08:30 | 0:08:36 | |
compensation above and beyond what he was entitled to, | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
so, effectively, calling him greedy. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
And he was sentenced to three months imprisonment. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
After a six-year investigation, | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
it was the result that Rob and his team had hoped for. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:53 | |
And for those who think what's the worst that can happen if | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
a claim is false or exaggerated? | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
There are claimants, including people like Mr Heffer, | 0:08:59 | 0:09:03 | |
that would think that simply walking away from the claim | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
is a risk that they are willing to take. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:09 | |
However, what they don't realise is that there are penalties | 0:09:09 | 0:09:13 | |
that can occur, including, as in this situation, | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
losing your liberty as a result of your direct greed. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
A man hoping to tie the knot makes an indecent proposal | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
on his claim form... | 0:09:29 | 0:09:30 | |
We established that our customer had actually purchased | 0:09:30 | 0:09:34 | |
a diamond and platinum engagement ring. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
However, he'd actually returned the ring | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
and he'd received the full refund of money paid. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:40 | |
And a passenger's claim goes belly-up after trying to catch | 0:09:40 | 0:09:44 | |
a moving bus. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:45 | |
But the amazing thing from this footage is how fast this man | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
can actually run in flip-flops. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:50 | |
In recent years, gangs of organised criminals have naively | 0:09:55 | 0:09:59 | |
identified insurance fraud as a low-risk way to make serious cash. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:03 | |
These groups are determined, | 0:10:03 | 0:10:04 | |
dangerous and operate without conscience. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
Among their favourite scams is the crash-for-cash con. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
First, the gang choose a victim. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
Then, they move their two cars into position in front of the target. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:18 | |
Gang car number one then slams on its brakes. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
Gang car two reacts by braking hard. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
Resulting in a rear-end shunt from the victim. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
Once the accident has taken place, inflated claims for damages, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:33 | |
high car costs and personal injury are submitted against | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
the innocent third-party driver. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
With an estimated 32 million cars on today's roads, | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
insurance cheats have no shortage of potential targets. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
DI Dave Hindmarsh is an investigator with the Metropolitan Police Force. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:51 | |
It's his job to identify, | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
investigate and shut down these types of sophisticated scams. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:58 | |
In 2011, a wave of calls to the Crimestoppers hotline alerted | 0:11:00 | 0:11:04 | |
the Met to an alleged crash-for-cash ring. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
The report that we received was that | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
a claims management company were arranging and facilitating | 0:11:12 | 0:11:17 | |
induced collisions within North London. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
That means they were going out and deliberately causing | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
the crashes in order to defraud the insurance industry. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
Once Dave and his team started to investigate this particular | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
outfit, their suspicions were confirmed. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
It became obvious very quickly that this claims management | 0:11:33 | 0:11:37 | |
company were dealing with induced collisions. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
Investigators quickly worked out their operation, and it was | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
clearly an elaborate scam involving a large network of perpetrators. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:47 | |
They would send people out to recruit others who would be | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
willing to hand over their cars. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
Once all that was arranged, the gang would go out onto main roads | 0:11:57 | 0:12:03 | |
and they would look for their target. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:05 | |
They prefer to look for people who are going to be insured, so that | 0:12:05 | 0:12:09 | |
is going to be commercial vehicles, people with children in their cars. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:14 | |
The gang didn't care about who they might hurt executing these | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
deliberate crashes. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:21 | |
Only the cash they could collect as a result. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
Once the accident had happened, | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
they would use their own claims management company to submit | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
various claims to the third-party insurers of the innocent | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
motorist they had set up. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
We asked all the insurers, had they come across this particular | 0:12:38 | 0:12:41 | |
claims management before, and then as the insurers started | 0:12:41 | 0:12:44 | |
coming back to us, | 0:12:44 | 0:12:46 | |
we identified that lots and lots of insurance companies | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
had claims outstanding that all appeared to be induced collisions. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:56 | |
So, the claims and the cash were rolling in. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
When the investigators followed the money trail, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
the scale of this operation became alarmingly clear. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
It was estimated around £5.6 million that this gang could | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
potentially have got away with. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
The gang had been operating their dangerous car con for a while. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
BRAKES SCREECH | 0:13:18 | 0:13:20 | |
But one deliberate collision would prove to be the breakthrough the case needed. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
The turning point for us in this investigation was | 0:13:24 | 0:13:28 | |
a collision between a red Mondeo, which was driven by the gang, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:32 | |
and they deliberately caused a crash with a lone female in a VW Polo. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:37 | |
Because we were made aware of that collision very quickly, | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
we were able to liaise with the insurers and follow that | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
claim as it went through the process. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
Now, in a ground-breaking plan to stop this gang in their tracks, | 0:13:48 | 0:13:52 | |
the Metropolitan Police and insurers teamed up in a unique operation. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
Now, unfortunately we can't disclose exactly how this operation | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
worked, as it's top-secret. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
But one thing we can tell you is that with these two working | 0:14:01 | 0:14:05 | |
as one, it wouldn't be long before the police closed in on the gang. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:09 | |
One insurer which worked closely with officers was Direct Line Group, | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
represented by their Head of Counter-Fraud Intelligence, Mike Brown. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
We were approached by the Metropolitan Police. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
Facts were relayed to us. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
And we signed up and worked with them tirelessly for the last | 0:14:27 | 0:14:31 | |
two and a bit years. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
It would be Direct Line's work identifying and sharing key | 0:14:34 | 0:14:38 | |
information that assisted the police in investigating the gang. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
The next part of the investigation | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
was to work with the Metropolitan Police | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
in identifying known locations, claims processes etc. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:55 | |
The evidence that both the Met and Direct Line were able to | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
gather while working together cracked the case wide open. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
We were able to identify who the ringleaders were, | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
who the decoy drivers were, who were the recruiters who were going | 0:15:07 | 0:15:11 | |
out there and finding the cars to be crashed. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
We went to a magistrate and were able to get a search warrant | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
to go into the business premises and search for relevant evidence. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
And when officers conducted the search, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
they found a boot full of incriminating evidence. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
We found 316 different files that were clearly induced collisions. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:34 | |
But more significantly, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:35 | |
in the wastepaper bin, we found documentation which had been | 0:15:35 | 0:15:41 | |
original utility bills, | 0:15:41 | 0:15:43 | |
but the addresses and names had been cut out and new addresses stuck on. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:49 | |
And these fake bills had a very clear intended use. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
The false utility bills were used primarily to make | 0:15:53 | 0:15:58 | |
a phantom passenger, so that's a person who doesn't exist, | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
come to life. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:02 | |
By giving them an identity, | 0:16:02 | 0:16:04 | |
they were able to send all those details to an insurance company | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
when they're pursuing a whiplash claim. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
With the evidence in the bag, | 0:16:11 | 0:16:13 | |
the ringleaders were placed under arrest and taken into custody. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
There were a number of individuals all working together, | 0:16:18 | 0:16:20 | |
all playing different roles in this particular fraud. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
The people who owned the claims management company - | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
Samoon Baryali and his brother. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:29 | |
Mohammad Miah, the recruiter. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
And we then identified the decoy driver - Jalid Hanadzai. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:36 | |
And then Yousaf Haider, who would deal with the claims. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:40 | |
The case proceeded to court and the whole gang were found guilty | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
of conspiracy to defraud. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:46 | |
The outcome at trial was that the key players were all | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
convicted and their sentences ranged between 21 months suspended, | 0:16:51 | 0:16:57 | |
for one of the lower players, | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
up to the ringleader - five years imprisonment. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:01 | |
It was the result Dave and his team had been working towards | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
for three years. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:08 | |
It was extremely successful and very satisfying from a personal and from | 0:17:10 | 0:17:15 | |
a professional point of view to see this organised criminal gang | 0:17:15 | 0:17:20 | |
being taken off the streets and put behind bars. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
And proof once again that the police and the insurance industry | 0:17:23 | 0:17:27 | |
are continually coming up with new ways to beat insurance fraud. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:31 | |
What I would say to anyone who was tempted for a bit of easy money that | 0:17:31 | 0:17:36 | |
they might see of becoming involved in these type of frauds is, don't. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
If you are convicted, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:41 | |
you will run a very serious risk of a lengthy custodial sentence. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:47 | |
Now, having your home broken into can be a terrifying | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
and invasive ordeal. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
One item that burglars commonly target is jewellery. | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
It's easy to pocket and fetches a good price. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
And it would appear that criminal minds think alike, as fraudsters | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
also have a penchant for precious possessions, naively thinking | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
that submitting a false claim for lost or stolen items | 0:18:10 | 0:18:14 | |
is a 24-carat winner. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:15 | |
Insurance companies deal with thousands of burglary-related | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
claims every day. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
And David Berry of Lloyds Banking Group is | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
a master at unpicking any spurious claims. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
His team received a call from a Mr Peter Emiantor, | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
who was in a bit of a state. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
In March 2014, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
he called us to report that he'd returned home from an evening | 0:18:38 | 0:18:40 | |
out with his friends, celebrating his birthday in fact, and that | 0:18:40 | 0:18:45 | |
when he'd got home he found that his property had been ransacked. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
He was really, really upset on the telephone. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
A devastating loss for Mr Emiantor. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
The goods that he'd reported to us as being stolen were several | 0:18:54 | 0:18:58 | |
high-valued watches, | 0:18:58 | 0:18:59 | |
two laptops. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
Most importantly, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:02 | |
there was a platinum and diamond engagement ring. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
The claim totalled £23,000 and was an especially cruel twist of fate, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:12 | |
given what Mr Emiantor had planned. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
Our customer explained to us in fact that when he... | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
His intentions on returning home from his birthday celebrations | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
were that he was going to propose marriage to his girlfriend. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
A truly tough break indeed. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
David's team were eager to process the claim as quickly as possible. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
But some of Mr Emiantor's paperwork lacked the ring of truth. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
When they started looking at the documentation that | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
the customer had presented us with, they found a number of anomalies | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
and they were particularly concerned and unclear | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
around some of the description of the items, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
because they didn't match each other. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:50 | |
And some of the values that had been put against them were inconsistent. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:54 | |
Keen to clarify the discrepancies, Mr Emiantor was visited in person. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
They found that in areas where you would expect someone to have | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
significant knowledge of an event, or significant knowledge of an item, | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
he was very vague. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:09 | |
Items such as watches, high-value jewellery, rings and suchlike, | 0:20:09 | 0:20:14 | |
because they command a high price, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:16 | |
it's not unreasonable to expect the customer to know full details | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
about where they were purchased, how they were acquired. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
This lack of knowledge was a serious cause for concern for | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
the claims team, but Emiantor's apparent amnesia | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
about one item in particular was shocking. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
Our customer also told us that he had been gifted a high-value watch | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
by his uncle, who he described as a multi-millionaire, | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
but unfortunately had passed away. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:41 | |
The reason that watch had been gifted to him was because | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
he had apparently saved his cousin, his uncle's son. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
The mere fact that he couldn't remember the name of the uncle, | 0:20:47 | 0:20:50 | |
or the name of the cousin whose life he'd saved, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:52 | |
and which enabled him to receive that watch, | 0:20:52 | 0:20:56 | |
was incredulous to us. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
Collect laundry, get milk... | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
save a close family member's life. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:03 | |
Easily forgettable. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
If that wasn't enough, Emiantor's invoices | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
didn't stand up to inspection either. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:10 | |
When we presented those invoices to one of the high-street jewellers, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:14 | |
they denied ever having issued the one that had | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
their name at the top of it. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
The other jeweller went into a little bit more detail for us, | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
and found that there was | 0:21:22 | 0:21:23 | |
a spelling mistake in the name of their website. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:26 | |
The invoices for the watches and jewellery Mr Emiantor had | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
submitted were indeed forgeries. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
But that wasn't all. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
Remember the engagement ring that was stolen before he'd had | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
the chance to pop the question? | 0:21:38 | 0:21:40 | |
We established that our customer had actually purchased | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
a diamond and platinum engagement ring. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:46 | |
He purchased that from an independent jewellers, | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
and when we spoke to those jewellers, they accepted that | 0:21:48 | 0:21:50 | |
he'd been into the shop, | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
and he'd paid around £5,500 for it. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
However, what they also told us is that, | 0:21:55 | 0:21:57 | |
two weeks after he purchased it, he'd actually returned the ring | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
to them and he'd received a full refund of the money paid. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:04 | |
With Mr Emiantor's ring of lies exposed, | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
it was time to confront him with the evidence. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
He very strongly denied that there was any wrongdoing. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
He maintained, very robustly, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
that all of the invoices and the documentation were genuine. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
He maintained that the ring had been lost, that it hadn't been returned. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:23 | |
Because he wasn't able to satisfactorily explain to us | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
the reasons for all those anomalies, we reported the matter | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
to the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
Ifed gladly took the case on. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
But despite the overwhelming evidence, | 0:22:36 | 0:22:38 | |
he still refused to come clean. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
He continued to maintain all innocence. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
A complete denial that he'd committed anything wrong. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
Mr Emiantor's steely rebuff of the allegations | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
would do him no good. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
The matter was taken to court, | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
and after a four-day trial, it took the jury just 40 minutes, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
on the strength and the depth of the evidence, | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
to convict the customer. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:02 | |
As a result of that, that customer is now | 0:23:02 | 0:23:04 | |
serving 18 months' imprisonment. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:07 | |
Mr Emiantor paid a high price for his attempted deception. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
But his refusal to admit his indecent proposal was key | 0:23:11 | 0:23:15 | |
to him to receiving a lengthy custodial sentence. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
Some customers, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:20 | |
even when you present to them the level of evidence that you | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
have that challenges their version of events, | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
it's certainly not unusual for some people to actually maintain | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
their position, robustly defend themselves and strongly present | 0:23:28 | 0:23:32 | |
that whatever they've told you is the absolute and complete truth. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:36 | |
Now... PHONE RINGS | 0:23:41 | 0:23:42 | |
Oop! Just a minute. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:44 | |
Hello? | 0:23:44 | 0:23:45 | |
Yeah, hi. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:47 | |
No, I was riding my bike with no hands, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
I was 11 years old at the time. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:51 | |
OK, thanks. See ya. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:55 | |
Now, if you've ever had an accident, the odds are you've received | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
an annoying call from a claims management company. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
They'll tell you you're entitled to a nice little pay-out, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
no win, no fee, so zero risk to you, whether you're injured or not. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:08 | |
What they don't tell you is that they'll take | 0:24:08 | 0:24:09 | |
a fat percentage of any successful claim. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
But if your claim is found to be false, | 0:24:12 | 0:24:14 | |
then you are solely responsible. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:16 | |
And while they'll walk away, you could be in serious trouble. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:20 | |
Solicitor Ronan McCann has defended hundreds of cases | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
brought by claims management companies. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
Many of these companies who farm claims are not all interested | 0:24:29 | 0:24:34 | |
in any individual. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
They are solely interested in the profits | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
that they can make from your claim. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
They will try all sorts of tactics | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
to convince you to pursue | 0:24:44 | 0:24:45 | |
a claim for compensation, | 0:24:45 | 0:24:47 | |
irrespective of whether | 0:24:47 | 0:24:48 | |
you are injured or not. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
You must refuse under all circumstances to cooperate | 0:24:50 | 0:24:55 | |
with these dishonest companies. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:57 | |
The approach to persuading individuals into making | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
a claim can often be aggressive and persistent cold-calling. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:05 | |
If you succumb, the consequences can be severe. | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
The ramifications for pursuing a claim | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
when you are not genuinely injured are stark. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
In the end, you may well go to prison. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
There may be costs orders against you, | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
or you may indeed have your home taken away. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
If any individual is invited to make a claim, | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
they should stop and ask themselves a very simple question... | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
were they injured? | 0:25:32 | 0:25:33 | |
Tom Gardiner is head of fraud for Aviva. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
He deals with these types of claims on a daily basis. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:41 | |
But one case wasn't all that it appeared to be. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
The accident that occurred was a relatively minor low-speed shunt, | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
at a roundabout, between a small Ford Fiesta | 0:25:50 | 0:25:54 | |
and a double-decker party bus. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:56 | |
So, a collision between a compact car and a whacking great bus. | 0:25:56 | 0:26:00 | |
The traffic accident equivalent of David and Goliath. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
We inspected both of the vehicles. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
There was minor damage to the bumper of the Fiesta | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
and only £70 worth of repairs to the bus. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
On the face of it, this was a straightforward low-speed impact, | 0:26:12 | 0:26:16 | |
less than 10mph. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:17 | |
But it would have been impossible to predict what was to happen next. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:24 | |
What naturally aroused suspicion was that, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
as the result of a very minor shunt, there was an epidemic of | 0:26:26 | 0:26:30 | |
whiplash injuries on the bus, resulting in 46 claims. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
70 quid's worth of damage to the bus, | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
but the personal injury claims would amount to quite a bit more. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:43 | |
Whiplash injuries would typically have a value of | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
£1,500 to £3,000. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:48 | |
And with costs, each claim might be worth £5,000. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:53 | |
Clearly, 46 such claims is a significant amount of money. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
And in this case, potentially a quarter of a million pounds. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
It was just entirely disproportionate to what was | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
a low-speed impact and £70 of damage to the bus. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:07 | |
A staggering claim total. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
So, what exactly was fuelling this tidal wave of compensation claims? | 0:27:10 | 0:27:14 | |
In this case, of the 46 claims that were brought, | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
two firms of solicitors represented 44 of the claimants, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
which clearly doesn't hold up to any scrutiny. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
With that many claims and alleged injuries, | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
surely the party bus would have diverted to the nearest A&E? | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
None of the 46 people sought medical attention at the time. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
They were on a party bus, and continued their evening. | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
I'd be surprised if, following a significant collision, | 0:27:40 | 0:27:45 | |
resulting in whiplash injuries, | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
46 were able to continue partying. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:50 | |
With the overwhelming evidence that this group of revellers had been | 0:27:50 | 0:27:53 | |
cajoled into a bunch of cheeky chancers, the party had to end. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:58 | |
Of the 46 claims that were made, approximately half of them | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
disappeared and went away very quickly. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
23 of them were litigated. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
They started court action, but I'm pleased to say we successfully | 0:28:07 | 0:28:10 | |
defended those, and they were discontinued or struck out. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:14 | |
The robust approach to these suspect claims saved Aviva over | 0:28:14 | 0:28:17 | |
a quarter of a million pounds. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
But for insurers, | 0:28:21 | 0:28:22 | |
the ultimate goal is to bring an end | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
to this compensation culture. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
We will defend fraudulent claims even where it's not economic | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
to defend them. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:32 | |
And in this case, even faced with 23 litigated claims | 0:28:32 | 0:28:35 | |
and the threat of trial, we continued to defend those. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:39 | |
And, in the end, the lack of substance came through, | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
and none of the claimed successfully made it to trial, | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
and we defended all of them. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:47 | |
There's an important role for claimant solicitors to play | 0:28:47 | 0:28:50 | |
to make sure that their door isn't open to fraud, | 0:28:50 | 0:28:54 | |
and they're not advancing what are clearly spurious claims. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:57 | |
Still to come, two men who stage a car crash claim to have never met, | 0:29:03 | 0:29:07 | |
but turn out to be old prison pals. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
Not only were they in the same prison, | 0:29:10 | 0:29:12 | |
they were in the same cell block. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:14 | |
And not only were they in the same cell block, | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
but their cells were opposite each other. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
So, they would have seen each other every single day. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:21 | |
Hey, life is busy, isn't it? | 0:29:27 | 0:29:28 | |
Whether you're rushing to work, running for a train | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
or trying to hop on a bus, most of us spend | 0:29:30 | 0:29:33 | |
a lot of time just trying to get from A to B without incident. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
Unfortunately, our haste can occasionally lead to mishaps, | 0:29:36 | 0:29:40 | |
whether you trip on a step or clonk your head on a revolving door. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:44 | |
Most of us hold our hands up and say, | 0:29:44 | 0:29:46 | |
"All right, I should have been looking where I was going." | 0:29:46 | 0:29:49 | |
But there are some who see this type of accident as an opportunity | 0:29:49 | 0:29:53 | |
to exploit and defraud without conscience. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
Lee Ingram of First Group sees his fair share | 0:29:59 | 0:30:02 | |
of personal injury cases. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:03 | |
Just like one customer who attempted to catch a bus a few years ago. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:10 | |
This gentleman's alleging that, as he's tried to get on the bus, | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
the driver's closed the doors on him. | 0:30:14 | 0:30:16 | |
He's also then saying that they've tried to drive off | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
while he's still boarding the bus. | 0:30:19 | 0:30:21 | |
This would be a terrifying situation. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
You're going to be wondering whether you're going to be dragged | 0:30:24 | 0:30:26 | |
along the road and subsequently dragged under the wheels of the bus. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:29 | |
The claimant had a relatively lucky escape, | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
coming away with significant but not life-threatening injuries. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
The injuries that were alleged by the claimant were quite | 0:30:36 | 0:30:39 | |
a severe laceration to the leg. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:42 | |
We could be looking at potential cosmetic surgery, | 0:30:42 | 0:30:44 | |
plastic surgery, you could be looking at secondary infections, | 0:30:44 | 0:30:48 | |
may well result in time off work, depending on what he does. | 0:30:48 | 0:30:52 | |
It's about a £20,000 claim. A nasty cut can produce a big bill. | 0:30:52 | 0:30:57 | |
But there was something wobbly about the claimant's story | 0:30:59 | 0:31:01 | |
which Lee just wasn't buying. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:03 | |
The suspicious thing about this claim is that we don't get | 0:31:03 | 0:31:07 | |
that many cases where drivers shut the doors on people, | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
and it was almost alleged that this was done deliberately. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:14 | |
I don't think that was the case. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:15 | |
Most of these incidents occur because people are rushing to get | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
on buses, and that's what we suspect actually happened in this case. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:22 | |
With the claimant making such severe accusations, | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
Lee had to get to the bottom of this case quickly | 0:31:26 | 0:31:29 | |
and find out if he did indeed have a leg to stand on. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:32 | |
As soon as we received this claim from the gentleman, | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
obviously we're going to look and see what our driver has said, | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
so we've gone back to the driver, | 0:31:38 | 0:31:39 | |
taken a full statement of their version of events, | 0:31:39 | 0:31:42 | |
and we've also gone to look at the onboard CCTV from the bus | 0:31:42 | 0:31:45 | |
to see if that does corroborate what this claimant is saying. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:48 | |
One of them has got it slightly wrong. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:51 | |
But which one? | 0:31:51 | 0:31:53 | |
Let's have a look. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:54 | |
What we actually see when we're looking at the footage | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
is a gentleman sprinting like a gazelle to try and get on the bus. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:03 | |
He lunges majestically at the last minute. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:06 | |
Hold on... | 0:32:06 | 0:32:08 | |
let's just check that one more time. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:11 | |
His left foot slips underneath the door, his right leg gives way. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:16 | |
And he falls backwards off of the bus. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:21 | |
All gazelle-like comparisons end at that point. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:24 | |
A bit different to a driver | 0:32:26 | 0:32:27 | |
intentionally closing the doors on him. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:30 | |
But the amazing thing from this footage is how fast this man | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
can actually run in flip-flops. | 0:32:33 | 0:32:36 | |
With the claimant's dash for personal injury cash kaput, | 0:32:36 | 0:32:39 | |
it seems his choice of footwear that day was | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
a big contributing factor to his fall. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:44 | |
The CCTV in this instance totally disproves the allegations | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
made by the claimant. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:51 | |
With the truth caught on camera, the claimant was busted. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:55 | |
Unlike his leg, which he had alleged had been gashed to the extent | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
he'd needed plastic surgery. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
Not a drop of blood, not even a tear in his jeans - | 0:33:03 | 0:33:07 | |
although he might need a new pair of flip-flops. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:10 | |
This case resulted in a full repudiation of the claim. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:14 | |
Amazingly, the solicitor subsequently came back to us | 0:33:14 | 0:33:17 | |
changing their story, saying that the driver should have actually | 0:33:17 | 0:33:20 | |
seen their claimant, who was at the doors at the time they were closed. | 0:33:20 | 0:33:24 | |
Upon reviewing the CCTV, we can see that when those doors | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
were closing, that bus stop was empty. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
None of our drivers are trained to wait for invisible passengers. | 0:33:30 | 0:33:34 | |
Proof that First Group will examine all claims thoroughly - | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
both genuine and false. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:39 | |
I think from this case it's clear to see that we will use | 0:33:39 | 0:33:43 | |
all evidence we have at our disposal to refute claims or, | 0:33:43 | 0:33:47 | |
as in a lot of cases, to uphold claims. | 0:33:47 | 0:33:51 | |
Thankfully, the chances of having an accident on the road | 0:33:55 | 0:33:59 | |
are relatively low, so what are the chances | 0:33:59 | 0:34:01 | |
of crashing into someone you know? | 0:34:01 | 0:34:03 | |
Pretty slim, you'd imagine. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:05 | |
Well, when it comes to scammers arranging deliberate crashes | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
to try and get a bumper pay-out from insurers, the odds shoot up. | 0:34:08 | 0:34:12 | |
This type of fraud is often arranged | 0:34:12 | 0:34:13 | |
between parties that know each other. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
The first thing suspicious insurers will do is look into | 0:34:16 | 0:34:19 | |
claimants' backgrounds and establish that all-important connection. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:22 | |
Susan Evans has seen every type of car con in the book. | 0:34:26 | 0:34:29 | |
In 2012, she was passed a claim that required her well-trained eye. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:35 | |
This particular accident, our policy holder, Mr Bougoussa, | 0:34:37 | 0:34:41 | |
was driving his Jaguar when a third-party vehicle, Mr Chammeme, | 0:34:41 | 0:34:45 | |
pulled out of a side road into his path. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
TYRES SCREECH | 0:34:48 | 0:34:49 | |
CRASH | 0:34:49 | 0:34:50 | |
There was quite a heavy impact. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:52 | |
Mr Bougoussa had a passenger in his vehicle, supposedly, | 0:34:52 | 0:34:56 | |
and we were told the damage had been occasioned to both vehicles. | 0:34:56 | 0:35:00 | |
The claim in total was about £16,000, | 0:35:00 | 0:35:03 | |
not an insignificant amount, but certainly one | 0:35:03 | 0:35:07 | |
that we would see on a regular basis. | 0:35:07 | 0:35:10 | |
On the surface, this case appeared to be an everyday claim, | 0:35:10 | 0:35:13 | |
but both men were overeager to ram home | 0:35:13 | 0:35:15 | |
particular details of the accident. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:18 | |
Mr Bougoussa was very specific in his description of the third party | 0:35:19 | 0:35:23 | |
and was quite adamant that he'd never met him before, | 0:35:23 | 0:35:28 | |
and the third party, in his description, again, | 0:35:28 | 0:35:30 | |
was adamant that they've never met and they'd never | 0:35:30 | 0:35:34 | |
come into contact before or after the accident. | 0:35:34 | 0:35:37 | |
TYRES SCREECH | 0:35:37 | 0:35:38 | |
But it would be the condition of their cars that first gave | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
real cause for concern. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
Our suspicions were aroused as we sent an engineer out | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
to examine the vehicles. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
That showed us that the car had not had just one impact, | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
that they'd had multiple impacts, | 0:35:52 | 0:35:54 | |
and also that he was stationary when the accident had taken place. | 0:35:54 | 0:35:58 | |
Strong evidence this was no genuine claim. | 0:36:00 | 0:36:02 | |
TYRES SCREECH | 0:36:02 | 0:36:03 | |
CRASH | 0:36:03 | 0:36:04 | |
With this in mind, it was time to visit the scene of the crash. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:08 | |
We actually sent an investigator out to look at the junction | 0:36:08 | 0:36:11 | |
where the accident happened. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:13 | |
It was a very wide, open junction, | 0:36:13 | 0:36:17 | |
really, really good visibility, | 0:36:17 | 0:36:19 | |
it was quite difficult to accept that somebody could have | 0:36:19 | 0:36:23 | |
pulled out into the path of another vehicle in those circumstances. | 0:36:23 | 0:36:27 | |
Susan suspected that this could be a staged collision and an attempt to | 0:36:27 | 0:36:32 | |
defraud Admiral, but further proof was needed to establish | 0:36:32 | 0:36:35 | |
a connection between Bougoussa and Chammeme. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:37 | |
So we actually looked into the background of all individuals | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
supposedly involved in the incident, and we were able to | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
establish that not only did they know one another prior to | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
the accident, but that they'd actually been in the same prison | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
for a considerable length of time. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:54 | |
CELL DOOR SLAMS | 0:36:54 | 0:36:56 | |
With the information that the accident wasn't | 0:36:56 | 0:36:58 | |
the first time these two men had been banged up together, | 0:36:58 | 0:37:01 | |
it was time to hand over their investigation. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
We decided to involve Ifed. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
Ifed is the City of London Police's | 0:37:08 | 0:37:10 | |
Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department. | 0:37:10 | 0:37:14 | |
A dedicated team of detectives | 0:37:14 | 0:37:15 | |
committed to stopping insurance fraudsters. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
There's ever more sophisticated detection tools being used | 0:37:19 | 0:37:23 | |
by the industry. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:24 | |
We're getting more and more cases every day. | 0:37:24 | 0:37:27 | |
This elite squad has prevented millions of pounds being | 0:37:27 | 0:37:31 | |
paid out to criminals in fraudulent claims. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
From now on, insurance cheats need to look over their shoulders. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:38 | |
It's all fraud, it's all crime, and it can all lead to prison. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:43 | |
Police! Don't move, stay where you are! | 0:37:43 | 0:37:45 | |
DC Paula Doyle is an Ifed detective and part of the team | 0:37:48 | 0:37:51 | |
that took on the case. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
Admiral had already worked out that | 0:37:54 | 0:37:55 | |
both men had been in prison together, | 0:37:55 | 0:37:57 | |
and that there were major inconsistencies | 0:37:57 | 0:38:01 | |
in the circumstances of the accident. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:03 | |
Ifed detectives analysed the evidence, | 0:38:04 | 0:38:07 | |
and quickly concluded that there were just too many coincidences | 0:38:07 | 0:38:11 | |
in Bougoussa and Chammeme's story to be plausible. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:13 | |
The first thing I actually did was to call the prison to ask them | 0:38:15 | 0:38:18 | |
how unlikely it would be for these two men | 0:38:18 | 0:38:22 | |
not to have come into contact with each other within the prison. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
Their answer was that it was pretty unlikely, cos not only | 0:38:25 | 0:38:29 | |
they were in the same prison, they were in the same cell block. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
And not only were they in the same cell block, | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
but their cells were opposite each other. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:36 | |
So they would have seen each other every single day. | 0:38:36 | 0:38:39 | |
So these two used to be neighbours in the nick. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:42 | |
Now they appeared to be crash buddies on the outside, | 0:38:42 | 0:38:45 | |
but they still couldn't get their stories straight. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:48 | |
An additional personal injury claim went in from | 0:38:48 | 0:38:50 | |
a guy called Abdul Rahid. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
When he was interviewed, | 0:38:52 | 0:38:54 | |
Mr Bougoussa couldn't even remember | 0:38:54 | 0:38:55 | |
what he was called, he called him "Dino", | 0:38:55 | 0:38:58 | |
and in fact, further to that, | 0:38:58 | 0:39:00 | |
Mr Chammeme described him as a 6ft tall black male, | 0:39:00 | 0:39:04 | |
whereas in interview, Mr Bougoussa described him as an Asian male. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:08 | |
With this third passenger having all the credibility of Bigfoot, | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
Paul analysed the engineer's accident report in forensic detail. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:19 | |
Mr Bougoussa's car, which was meant to have been travelling at 30mph, | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
had damage consistent with it | 0:39:23 | 0:39:25 | |
being still at the time and not travelling. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:27 | |
The damage on his car was actually overlapping, | 0:39:27 | 0:39:31 | |
which would mean it had been hit more than once by Mr Chammeme's car. | 0:39:31 | 0:39:35 | |
The damage also indicated that Mr Chammeme's car didn't have | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
its registration plate on at the time. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:41 | |
Which is unusual, because normally when you are out driving, | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
you would have your number plate attached to your car. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
And when asked to explain the discrepancies, | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
the pair had very different responses. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
Mr Bougoussa simply said, "No comment." | 0:39:53 | 0:39:55 | |
Mr Chammeme, however, had a story, | 0:39:55 | 0:39:57 | |
and his story was that when he hit Mr Bougoussa, he'd reversed. | 0:39:57 | 0:40:02 | |
Which would not account for two impacts, | 0:40:02 | 0:40:05 | |
so I didn't believe this was true. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:08 | |
And I asked him, if that was the case, why did you not then | 0:40:08 | 0:40:11 | |
have your registration plate attached to your car? | 0:40:11 | 0:40:15 | |
And he pretended not to be able to understand what I'd asked him. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:19 | |
Playing dumb wouldn't help the fact that the physical evidence | 0:40:19 | 0:40:22 | |
suggested Mr Bougoussa had | 0:40:22 | 0:40:24 | |
intentionally and repeatedly driven his car | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
into Bougoussa's, to stage the accident damage. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:30 | |
Both men maintained that the accident was genuine and that | 0:40:31 | 0:40:35 | |
they didn't know each other. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
So obviously, I then have to go a little bit further to prove | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
that they do know each other, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:43 | |
and that meant a visit to the prison that held Mr Chammeme's file. | 0:40:43 | 0:40:47 | |
I did find eventually what I was looking for, | 0:40:49 | 0:40:52 | |
and that was a document that was from Mr Chammeme to the prison | 0:40:52 | 0:40:57 | |
requesting that he be allowed to send £100 to Mr Bougoussa's wife. | 0:40:57 | 0:41:03 | |
Despite the overwhelming evidence, the pair were sticking | 0:41:03 | 0:41:06 | |
to their rather confused stories, and the case proceeded to trial. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:11 | |
They both pleaded not guilty, but in a little bit of | 0:41:11 | 0:41:15 | |
a twist to the story, they actually did admit they knew each other. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:18 | |
Mr Chammeme gave a defence saying, | 0:41:18 | 0:41:21 | |
"We met in prison, we stayed in touch, | 0:41:21 | 0:41:24 | |
"and in fact, I was on my way to meet | 0:41:24 | 0:41:26 | |
"Mr Bougoussa when the accident happened," | 0:41:26 | 0:41:29 | |
and the accident was genuine, just an unfortunate coincidence that | 0:41:29 | 0:41:33 | |
he happened to hit the person he was going to meet that day. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:37 | |
But Chammeme would soon change his tune. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:41 | |
I think after making that defence, Mr Chammeme must have realised | 0:41:41 | 0:41:45 | |
how ludicrous it was | 0:41:45 | 0:41:47 | |
and promptly changed his mind and pleaded guilty. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:52 | |
And Bougoussa quickly followed suit, changing his plea to guilty. | 0:41:52 | 0:41:57 | |
They were given nine-month suspended sentences, | 0:41:57 | 0:41:59 | |
suspended for two years, | 0:41:59 | 0:42:01 | |
they were both given a two-year supervision order, | 0:42:01 | 0:42:04 | |
and additionally, Mr Chammeme was | 0:42:04 | 0:42:07 | |
ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work. | 0:42:07 | 0:42:10 | |
They may have narrowly avoided a custodial sentence, | 0:42:10 | 0:42:13 | |
but they were held accountable for their attempted fraud. | 0:42:13 | 0:42:16 | |
We never did find Mr Rahid, or Dino, | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
and given that the accident didn't actually happen, | 0:42:19 | 0:42:24 | |
it's highly unlikely that there was a passenger in the car. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:26 | |
And he's been just invented | 0:42:26 | 0:42:28 | |
to make more money out of the insurance company. | 0:42:28 | 0:42:33 | |
Bougoussa and Chammeme thought they were on to a winner | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
staging this accident, | 0:42:36 | 0:42:37 | |
but their shambolic execution was their undoing. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:40 | |
I think they thought the claim wouldn't get looked at | 0:42:40 | 0:42:43 | |
and they wouldn't get found out. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:44 | |
Unfortunately, it was looked at and they did get found out. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:49 | |
They underestimated the lengths that Ifed will go to, to prove a case. | 0:42:49 | 0:42:53 | |
Insurance fraud in this country costs all of us money, | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
but the days of no-questions-asked pay-outs are numbered. | 0:43:01 | 0:43:04 | |
Insurers are using ever more sophisticated technology | 0:43:04 | 0:43:08 | |
to identify, track and prosecute fraudsters, | 0:43:08 | 0:43:11 | |
and courts are using new powers to put these criminals behind bars. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:15 |