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Insurance fraud has reached epidemic levels in the UK. | 0:00:05 | 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 | 0:00:18 | |
Deliberate crashes, bogus personal injuries, even phantom pets - | 0:00:18 | 0:00:24 | |
the fraudsters are risking more and more to make a quick killing, | 0:00:24 | 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 | |
The subject is out the vehicle. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
..sophisticated danger analysis techniques... | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
..and a number of highly skilled police units... | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
Police, 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 | 0:00:57 | |
All those conmen, scammers and cheats on the fiddle | 0:00:57 | 0:01:01 | |
are now caught in the act and Claimed and Shamed. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
A thief stealing fraudulently obtained hire cars | 0:01:11 | 0:01:13 | |
is flushed out in a unique surveillance operation. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:20 | |
The best option for us was to set up a sting operation | 0:01:20 | 0:01:23 | |
to get this fraudster out of the shadows and into the light, | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
so we could find out his true identity. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
A claimant loses his cool when his phoney story | 0:01:30 | 0:01:32 | |
for a lost smartphone is unravelled. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
This individual claimant | 0:01:36 | 0:01:38 | |
then claimed their friend had stolen the handset off them. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:42 | |
Motor insurance scams are getting ever more sophisticated, | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
often designed to repeatedly defraud companies | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
out of staggering amounts of cash. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
But no matter how clever criminals think they are, | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
insurers are going to extraordinary lengths | 0:02:06 | 0:02:10 | |
to stay one step ahead of them. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:12 | |
Every time we get behind the wheel of a car, | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
there's a chance we could have an accident. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:17 | |
Credit hire companies, like Accident Exchange, | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
can provide temporary vehicles while yours is being fixed. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
The Asset Protection Unit is a dedicated team within the company | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
who detect and stop any potential fraud in its tracks. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:33 | |
Director of Investigative Services Neil Thomas | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
is the tip of the scam-busting spear | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
and took on one case that needed all the skills and experience | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
his 30 years in the police force had given him. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:45 | |
We received a claim which, on initial glance, looked like a normal claim. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:49 | |
So, two vehicles involved, two people involved in the accident. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:54 | |
The at-fault party had admitted liability at the scene, | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
so it seemed like a normal claim. | 0:02:57 | 0:02:58 | |
The customer was given a replacement hire vehicle | 0:02:58 | 0:03:01 | |
and everything appeared normal, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
until the claimant vanished. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
All of a sudden, the claimant disappeared and the car disappeared. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:13 | |
APU were instructed to investigate, | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
firstly to see where the client was | 0:03:18 | 0:03:20 | |
and, as importantly, to find out where the car was. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
And when Neil examined the claimant's documents, | 0:03:22 | 0:03:25 | |
an alarming discovery was made. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
The identities were false, | 0:03:27 | 0:03:29 | |
in relation to both the at-fault driver, | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
the car he'd used in the accident was actually still for sale | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
on a forecourt somewhere else in the country. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
In fact, every piece of information that had been supplied | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
was completely bogus. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
We knew then we were dealing with something | 0:03:45 | 0:03:47 | |
that was more than just someone who'd switched their phone off | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
or perhaps moved house during the hire period. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
We knew it was a fraud. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:55 | |
Neil's investigation quickly uncovered the claimant's MO. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:59 | |
The claimant would find two what he thought were overpriced cars | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
on forecourts advertised on the internet, | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
and then take out insurance using a stolen credit card | 0:04:07 | 0:04:12 | |
or payment card, and then, finding a location | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
where he felt comfortable that he could stage an accident virtually. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
So, no accident actually took place. He just made it all up. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
But this was merely the beginning of the con. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
The claimant would then contact credit hire companies | 0:04:30 | 0:04:33 | |
and tell them he'd been involved in a non-fault accident | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
and try and get a replacement like-for-like car. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
And it appeared as if Accident Exchange | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
weren't the only victims of this fraudster. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
It turned out quite quickly that a number of credit hire companies | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
in particular, throughout the country, | 0:04:48 | 0:04:51 | |
had also been targeted by people using false identities, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
and using the false identities | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
with false insurance policies to steal cars. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:01 | |
Neil's investigation had sussed out | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
how and where this credit hire conman was working, | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
but the biggest question remained unanswered. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:11 | |
The challenge for us was to go deeper | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
and actually find out who was the mastermind behind the scam. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
But it wouldn't be long before Neil would get a shot | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
at flushing out this insurance cheat. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
When a second similar claim came in, it had a number of links, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
similarities between that one and the first one. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:28 | |
The best option for us was to set up a sting operation, | 0:05:28 | 0:05:32 | |
so we could find out his true identity. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:33 | |
The profile matched that of the unknown fraudster, | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
so instead of rejecting | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
what they were almost certain was a false claim, | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
Neil and his team took a bold step. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:48 | |
We then arranged the delivery, so the car was delivered, | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
and it was under surveillance all of the time. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:53 | |
The claimant turned up at the scene and started signing over documents, | 0:05:55 | 0:06:00 | |
so that gave us a little bit of time | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
for the person to commit to the fraud. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
With the assistance of the Lancashire police force, | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
Neil finally had his man. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:12 | |
He was arrested and taken to Preston police station for questioning. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
As a result of the sting operation, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
we finally found out that the fraudster behind all of this | 0:06:20 | 0:06:25 | |
was a man called Naveed Shah. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:26 | |
Shah had been caught red-handed, but there would be no confession. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:31 | |
He initially denied any involvement. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
He said he'd found a bag of false identity documents | 0:06:35 | 0:06:39 | |
in a bus stop locally | 0:06:39 | 0:06:40 | |
and he'd approached the credit hire company | 0:06:40 | 0:06:42 | |
just to get a nice car for a few days. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
He had no intention of keeping the car. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:47 | |
Shah was charged with over 20 counts of fraud and vehicle theft, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
before being released on bail. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:54 | |
But while the police built their case, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
Shah was soon up to his old tricks. | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
Within weeks of Shah being bailed, | 0:07:01 | 0:07:03 | |
I was alerted to another attempt to defraud the industry. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:08 | |
He had approached another company in a different part of the country, | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
using a similar MO, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
wanting another car. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
I decided that enough was enough, | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
we needed to do yet another sting operation. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:22 | |
Using all his years of police training in covert investigations, | 0:07:22 | 0:07:26 | |
Neil once again planned and executed a staged delivery | 0:07:26 | 0:07:30 | |
with an Accident Exchange vehicle, | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
which was filmed by a member of Neil's team. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
So you'll see Naveed Shah wearing a blue jumper. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
You see him here signing over the documents, looking round the car, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:45 | |
and that was a tactic that we used to try and give us some time. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
As Shah produces forged documents | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
and tries to take delivery of the car, the police are called in. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:55 | |
A police van turns up. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:57 | |
He looks over to the van | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
to see if it's just a police officer on the car park. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
Unfortunately for him, they were there to arrest him. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
But Shah wasn't working alone. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
When he takes the bag from his shoulder, | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
my belief is he's indicating to two accomplices | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
at the other end of the car park | 0:08:12 | 0:08:14 | |
to almost say, "This is a signal, the police are onto us, | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
"you need to run away." | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
Unfortunately for them, there was no escape. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
I was in the other part of the car park | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
and I detained the two other people. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
So then you'll see the police officer walking towards Shah. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
He doesn't put up a fight, he doesn't try and run away. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
Then he just walks along towards the police officer | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
and then hands the bag over and almost surrenders. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
Shah was back in custody once again. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
He denied his involvement again. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
All the way through, he denied any involvement | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
in relation to trying to steal the cars. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
Still to come, | 0:08:55 | 0:08:56 | |
Neil and APU think their cover is blown | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
as one final trap is set for Naveed Shah. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
You've got a spotter, who's in a doorway, | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
probably about 250 yards nearer the plot than you are. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
Nowadays, there isn't much you can't do on a smartphone, | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
which undoubtedly makes them one of THE must-have gadgets. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:23 | |
That desirability and their high resale value | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
makes them very attractive to some insurance cheats. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
But modern technology is helping to bust the attempts | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
of cellular scammers looking to make bogus claims. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:35 | |
For a while, phones got smaller. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
But now, they seem to be growing in size once again. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:44 | |
Companies like Assurant | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
have been insuring customers' handsets | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
right through the evolution to the modern smartphone. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
Andy Morris has made protecting people's devices his business | 0:09:52 | 0:09:57 | |
and knows full well that not all claims are as they appear. | 0:09:57 | 0:10:01 | |
This particular claim was for a high-end Apple iPhone | 0:10:03 | 0:10:07 | |
to the value of over £600. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
The circumstances of this particular claim were not uncommon. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
The individual had lost the phone | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
whilst on a night out with their friends | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
and lost it in the back of a taxi. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:23 | |
Easily done. But all phones have a unique identity number, | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
making them instantly trackable, | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
especially if a handset is sold to a mobile phone recycling shop. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:34 | |
Part of the validation checks that our agents go through | 0:10:34 | 0:10:37 | |
is to check with the recyclers in the marketplace | 0:10:37 | 0:10:40 | |
to see if the phone had been sold. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:42 | |
For this particular claimant, | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
what it demonstrated is that we had information | 0:10:44 | 0:10:48 | |
they had sold the handset to a recycler. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
Having found a match on the claimant's handset | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
with one particular phone recycler, action was taken. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
When we obtained the information | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
that this particular handset had been sold to a recycler, | 0:11:01 | 0:11:06 | |
our agents telephoned the claimant | 0:11:06 | 0:11:11 | |
to discuss the evidence that we had found. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
The evidence was unequivocal. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
We had the device being sold to the recycler | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
and we also had the identity of this individual | 0:11:54 | 0:11:58 | |
being verified by the recycler. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
But the claimant would soon change his story. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
So, during the discussion with the claimant, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
the claimant actually admitted at one point | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
and said that they'd got into financial difficulties | 0:12:11 | 0:12:13 | |
and that was the reason that they'd sold the handset, | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
but subsequently, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:18 | |
they had returned the cash to the recycler and got the handset back. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:23 | |
Whether he'd bought the phone back or not, | 0:12:23 | 0:12:25 | |
the claimant was still trying to make an insurance claim | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
for a device he said he'd lost when he hadn't. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:32 | |
The claimant's fuse is burning ever shorter. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
He is now saying that he DID sell his phone | 0:12:58 | 0:13:00 | |
because he needed the cash, | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
but then he bought it back and genuinely lost it. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
Hard to believe? Well, it wasn't long | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
before his story took another handbrake turn. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
During this very aggressive discussion, | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
the story became even more far-fetched. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:17 | |
This individual claimant then claimed | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
their friend had stolen the handset off them | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
and miraculously sold it back to the same handset recycler. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:28 | |
The call handler questions the claimant on this dubious allegation. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:32 | |
That doesn't sound like a good friend to me. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
And the claimant is very forgiving, | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
considering what his so-called pal is alleged to have done. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
Despite this claimant providing a far-fetched story | 0:14:00 | 0:14:03 | |
about events and what they said had happened, | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
they didn't want to inform us of who this friend was. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:11 | |
Well, his concern for his unidentified friend | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
wouldn't help his claim. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:28 | |
Rather than taking the opportunity of being honest, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
this claimant continued with this story, | 0:14:31 | 0:14:35 | |
so we had the evidence that it was them | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
that had sold it to the recycler. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:39 | |
There was only ever one transaction. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
We had the evidence that it was the same device. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
The claimant became increasingly irate with the call handler. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
During the process of our agents rejecting the claim | 0:15:04 | 0:15:08 | |
because this claimant had provided misleading information, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
the claimant abused our staff | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
and asked us to immediately cancel his policy. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:17 | |
The evidence suggested this claimant thought pulling a phoney fast one | 0:15:32 | 0:15:36 | |
was going to be a walk in the park. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
But insurers are using technology to stay one step ahead of the game. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
I don't think that people realise the extent | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
that the industry works and collaborates | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
and how the mobile phone industry | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
actually has a unique identifier for every device. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:56 | |
It's no secret that staging car crashes | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
is one of the favoured scams of insurance cheats, | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
mostly as they think there's every chance they'll get away with it. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
But with insurers and police taking a hard line | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
against any kind of crash for cash crime, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:16 | |
that couldn't be further from the truth. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
With so much traffic on UK roads, | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
insurers are dealing with thousands | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
of motor-related personal injury claims every day. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
But many of these are exaggerated or totally made up. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
It's a problem AXA's head of fraud, Richard Davies, | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
is determined to fight. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
He was recently handed one case | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
involving an AXA policyholder to investigate. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:47 | |
Qadir Hanif told us he had had a very serious motor accident. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
He was driving along the road | 0:16:51 | 0:16:52 | |
and then he had been T-boned by somebody exiting from a junction. | 0:16:52 | 0:16:55 | |
TYRES SCREECH | 0:16:55 | 0:16:57 | |
As a result of that, his car was a total write-off, | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
he told us that he had injuries to his neck, | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
he told us that he had suffered psychological distress | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
and submitted a claim to us worth... | 0:17:06 | 0:17:11 | |
It sounded like a truly traumatic experience. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
The driver of the other vehicle supported Hanif's version of events | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
and Richard was keen to get this sorted for the customer. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:23 | |
On the face of it, this appeared to be a genuine claim | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
for a very serious accident. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
However, when we got to look at the vehicles, | 0:17:29 | 0:17:31 | |
the story began to fall apart. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
Inspecting the accident damage to both cars | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
would take them a big step closer to the truth. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
When we looked at the vehicles, there were two features | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
which our engineer told us were wrong. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
We had been told that Mr Hanif was driving along the road | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
and that a vehicle had exited from a junction and that he'd been T-boned. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:53 | |
What you'd expect to see on Mr Hanif's car is scraping of the paint | 0:17:53 | 0:17:57 | |
and the engineer couldn't see any of that. | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
That tells us that the claim isn't genuine. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
The evidence suggested Hanif's car had been hit whilst stationary, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:08 | |
indicating that the cars had been deliberately crashed | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
in a staged collision. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:14 | |
At this point, our engineer is reporting | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
that the claim could not be genuine because the evidence | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
of the damage to the vehicles didn't stack up with the injuries | 0:18:21 | 0:18:25 | |
which Qadir said he was suffering. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:27 | |
And on digging into Hanif's medical records, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
it was discovered he was actually claiming | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
for £1,000 of physio treatment he never actually received. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
But despite the evidence against him, Hanif would not roll over. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:43 | |
Well, Qadir put up a hell of a fight with this claim. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
He refused to accept the engineering evidence that we put to him | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
and he took us to court. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:50 | |
An interesting decision and one he would soon regret. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:55 | |
We in turn defended that claim and the judge, when we got to court, | 0:18:55 | 0:19:01 | |
found that Mr Hanif's evidence was completely dishonest. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:05 | |
As a result, we were awarded a costs order of £7,800 that time. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:11 | |
A good result for Richard and the team at AXA. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:16 | |
But their satisfaction would be short-lived. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
At this stage, we thought that we were going to at least recover | 0:19:19 | 0:19:21 | |
some of our costs of defending this claim | 0:19:21 | 0:19:24 | |
and those costs run into thousands and thousands of pounds. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:28 | |
However, Qadir did not pay us any money at all. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
Instead, he jumped the country. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
He left without a trace. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:35 | |
Hanif might have done a runner to avoid having to pay hefty costs, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:40 | |
but when he returns, it won't just be customs officers waiting for him. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:44 | |
We didn't stop pursuing him. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
We went back to the court and the judge subsequently imprisoned him | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
to eight months in jail and reinforced the costs order for us | 0:19:50 | 0:19:55 | |
to the value of £10,000. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:57 | |
And for those who think Hanif still got off lightly... | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
Were Mr Hanif to return to the country, | 0:20:00 | 0:20:02 | |
he would be stopped at the border, | 0:20:02 | 0:20:04 | |
he would be arrested and he would be sent to jail for eight months. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
Previously, Neil Thomas had exposed serial fraudster Naveed Shah, | 0:20:14 | 0:20:18 | |
who was stealing fraudulently obtained credit hire vehicles | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
from across the UK. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:23 | |
But despite Shah having been caught | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
and arrested twice in two separate staged delivery operations, | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
new evidence suggested he was potentially going for a third car. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
Even though Naveed Shah had been arrested and given bail, | 0:20:34 | 0:20:39 | |
you would think that that would have taught him to keep his head down | 0:20:39 | 0:20:44 | |
and not get involved in any other offences, | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
certainly whilst he's on bail. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:47 | |
However, I was alerted to another potential claimant | 0:20:47 | 0:20:51 | |
using the same way of operating. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
My decision was to, again, do another staged delivery. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:58 | |
We didn't know whether it would be a separate claimant, | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
somebody working with Naveed Shah or Naveed himself. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
Well, it was time to find out. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
With the support of the Lancashire police force, | 0:21:08 | 0:21:10 | |
Neil and the APU operations team travelled to Blackburn, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
where the vehicle delivery was due to take place. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:16 | |
We've done all the final preparations, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
we've made sure that the driver | 0:21:19 | 0:21:21 | |
is comfortable with what he has to say to the client, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
most importantly made sure that he's comfortable, | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
that he's got a danger signal. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:29 | |
It's going to be quite a challenge for us | 0:21:29 | 0:21:32 | |
to deliver the car and not be seen. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
Shah had been getting away with his scam thus far with careful planning | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
and, given his recent arrests, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
would more than likely be extra cautious during today's pick-up. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
What we're looking for is any counter-surveillance people, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:51 | |
any people that are going to spot us as we approach. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
We've got to be on our toes. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:56 | |
Soon, Neil's fears are confirmed. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
There is a spotter on the right. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
There is a spotter on the right, just there coming out of the shop. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:04 | |
-This one here? -Yeah. The man in the grey, with the white hood. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
So he warns the APU team member | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
posing as the vehicle delivery driver. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
You've got a spotter who's in a doorway, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
probably about 250 yards nearer the plot than you are. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:20 | |
The delivery driver, codename Nathan, | 0:22:20 | 0:22:22 | |
has arrived at the prearranged drop-off location. | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
So the situation now is that we've parked out of the way. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:32 | |
We're waiting on a phone call from Nathan, the delivery driver. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:36 | |
He's made a phone call to the client just to make the delivery. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:41 | |
The claimant is reportedly en route to take delivery of the car | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
and the APU team are in position. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
But Neil's concerned the claimant may have had a tip-off. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
It's a little bit of a stalemate. We've got some spotters in the area, | 0:22:51 | 0:22:55 | |
the delivery driver is in the car waiting for the person to turn up. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
With no sign of the claimant, | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
Neil makes a call to the driver and ups the ante. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
I think what we need to do now is move it to the next level. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
So, if you're comfortable, I think probably go to the door. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:19 | |
Neil and his team are highly trained in covert surveillance operations. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
Nevertheless, this move is still a calculated risk. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:27 | |
Neil receives a call from the delivery driver. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:32 | |
Yeah, OK. OK, I'll come back to you shortly. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
Well, the situation now is that the delivery driver's still waiting. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:40 | |
He's been to the client's address, | 0:23:40 | 0:23:41 | |
there's no reply at the client's door | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
and the client's mobile phone is off | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
so we're still waiting for contact with the client. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
But that would soon change. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
The driver has contacted the client, who's answered the phone, | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
who now says that he's at a hospital appointment | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
in the Manchester area | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
so we're unable to deliver the car at the moment. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
We've asked him if he wants us to go to Manchester, | 0:24:04 | 0:24:06 | |
but he's declined that so we're a little bit stuck at the moment. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:12 | |
Neil informs the rest of the team. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
It's a stand-down, we made contact with the client | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
or Nathan has, the delivery driver. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
He's saying he's in Manchester at a hospital appointment, | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
so I think that's it for today, we can't do much else. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
OK, thank you. Bye-bye. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
The bogus claim submitted had all the hallmarks of Naveed Shah. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:37 | |
But, in truth, there was no way to know whether this particular scam | 0:24:37 | 0:24:40 | |
was orchestrated by him or any of his accomplices. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:44 | |
What was certain, though, was that, thanks to APU's investigation, | 0:24:44 | 0:24:48 | |
the police now had enough evidence to prosecute him. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
By this point, it was estimated that Shah had fraudulently obtained | 0:24:51 | 0:24:55 | |
and subsequently stolen a quarter of a million pounds' worth of cars. | 0:24:55 | 0:25:00 | |
There were about ten vehicles stolen by Shah and the accomplices. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:06 | |
We haven't identified, as yet, the accomplices. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
Some of the vehicles have been found and recovered, | 0:25:10 | 0:25:14 | |
others are still outstanding. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
We're still working with the police | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
to try and identify where those vehicles are. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:19 | |
Shah had been perpetrating his scam across the UK. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:24 | |
But the case was ultimately taken on by the Lancashire Constabulary | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
and overseen by DI Tim McDermott. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
Mr Shah was originally charged with 26 offences | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
that related to either the theft or attempted theft | 0:25:35 | 0:25:38 | |
of motor vehicles or fraud offences. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
And given the level of sophistication of Shah's scam, | 0:25:41 | 0:25:45 | |
investigators knew there was no way he could have been working alone. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
There came a point during the court process | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
when it was deemed appropriate | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
that the charges should be combined into a conspiracy charge | 0:25:54 | 0:25:58 | |
to encompass all the evidence that we had in front of us. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:02 | |
So he was then charged with conspiring with persons unknown | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
to commit the fraud and the theft offences | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
and it was on that basis that Mr Shah eventually pleaded guilty. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
So, Shah had finally put his hands up to his crimes. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
However, his victims aren't just the insurers | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
and credit hire companies he targeted. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
In this case, you have vehicles that are stolen and not recovered | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
and you need to think about who or where those vehicles have gone to, | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
who's bought them. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:29 | |
So has it been bought by a law-abiding member of the public | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
who has spent their last pennies on buying a nice car | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
for their family, but ends up losing the car | 0:26:35 | 0:26:37 | |
because it's subsequently identified as being stolen? | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
Shah's arrogance and contempt for the law was ultimately his undoing. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:45 | |
There's no doubt that Mr Shah thought | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
that the MO he'd come up with was sophisticated | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
and that he was extremely confident | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
that it was too complex for us to be able to unravel. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
The end result, as you can see, is that he goes to jail. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:00 | |
Shah severely underestimated the determination | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
of companies like Accident Exchange and the police. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:07 | |
Having already pled guilty to conspiring to commit fraud | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
and vehicle theft, he returns to court to be sentenced. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
In Preston Crown Court today, | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
Naveed Shah received a sentence of two years immediate custody. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:22 | |
There were some gasps in the public seating. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:26 | |
I think it was a shock to both Shah and certainly the people with him. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
It's a satisfying result for Neil and all the staff at APU. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:36 | |
We've actually brought Naveed Shah | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
out from the shadows, into the light. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
I think the right decision was made today | 0:27:41 | 0:27:43 | |
and it's another fraudster taken off the streets. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
Whether it's exaggerating real injuries, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
totally making up a story for a dodgy claim | 0:27:54 | 0:27:56 | |
or masterminding insurance fraud on an industrial scale, | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
insurers are coming down hard on the people | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
who think they can make a quick buck with their scams and cons. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 | |
But the fraudsters need to think again. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
There's more of them than ever before being caught in the act | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
and Claimed and Shamed. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:15 |