Episode 8 Claimed and Shamed


Episode 8

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Episode 8. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

Insurance fraud has reached epidemic levels in the UK.

0:00:050:00:09

It's costing us more than £1.3 billion every year,

0:00:090:00:14

that's almost 3.6 million every day.

0:00:140:00:18

Deliberate crashes, bogus personal injuries, even phantom pets -

0:00:180:00:24

the fraudsters are risking more and more to make a quick killing,

0:00:240:00:29

and every year it's adding around £50 to your insurance bill.

0:00:290:00:33

But insurers are fighting back,

0:00:330:00:36

exposing just under 15 fake claims every hour.

0:00:360:00:39

Armed with covert surveillance systems...

0:00:390:00:41

The subject is out the vehicle.

0:00:410:00:44

..sophisticated danger analysis techniques...

0:00:440:00:47

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

0:00:480:00:51

Police, stay where you are!

0:00:510:00:53

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

0:00:530:00:55

Just don't lie to us.

0:00:550:00:57

All those conmen, scammers and cheats on the fiddle

0:00:570:01:01

are now caught in the act and Claimed and Shamed.

0:01:010:01:04

A thief stealing fraudulently obtained hire cars

0:01:110:01:13

is flushed out in a unique surveillance operation.

0:01:130:01:20

The best option for us was to set up a sting operation

0:01:200:01:23

to get this fraudster out of the shadows and into the light,

0:01:230:01:27

so we could find out his true identity.

0:01:270:01:29

A claimant loses his cool when his phoney story

0:01:300:01:32

for a lost smartphone is unravelled.

0:01:320:01:35

This individual claimant

0:01:360:01:38

then claimed their friend had stolen the handset off them.

0:01:380:01:42

Motor insurance scams are getting ever more sophisticated,

0:01:540:01:58

often designed to repeatedly defraud companies

0:01:580:02:01

out of staggering amounts of cash.

0:02:010:02:04

But no matter how clever criminals think they are,

0:02:040:02:06

insurers are going to extraordinary lengths

0:02:060:02:10

to stay one step ahead of them.

0:02:100:02:12

Every time we get behind the wheel of a car,

0:02:120:02:15

there's a chance we could have an accident.

0:02:150:02:17

Credit hire companies, like Accident Exchange,

0:02:170:02:20

can provide temporary vehicles while yours is being fixed.

0:02:200:02:24

The Asset Protection Unit is a dedicated team within the company

0:02:240:02:28

who detect and stop any potential fraud in its tracks.

0:02:280:02:33

Director of Investigative Services Neil Thomas

0:02:330:02:35

is the tip of the scam-busting spear

0:02:350:02:38

and took on one case that needed all the skills and experience

0:02:380:02:41

his 30 years in the police force had given him.

0:02:410:02:45

We received a claim which, on initial glance, looked like a normal claim.

0:02:450:02:49

So, two vehicles involved, two people involved in the accident.

0:02:490:02:54

The at-fault party had admitted liability at the scene,

0:02:540:02:57

so it seemed like a normal claim.

0:02:570:02:58

The customer was given a replacement hire vehicle

0:02:580:03:01

and everything appeared normal,

0:03:010:03:04

until the claimant vanished.

0:03:040:03:07

All of a sudden, the claimant disappeared and the car disappeared.

0:03:080:03:13

APU were instructed to investigate,

0:03:150:03:18

firstly to see where the client was

0:03:180:03:20

and, as importantly, to find out where the car was.

0:03:200:03:22

And when Neil examined the claimant's documents,

0:03:220:03:25

an alarming discovery was made.

0:03:250:03:27

The identities were false,

0:03:270:03:29

in relation to both the at-fault driver,

0:03:290:03:32

the car he'd used in the accident was actually still for sale

0:03:320:03:36

on a forecourt somewhere else in the country.

0:03:360:03:39

In fact, every piece of information that had been supplied

0:03:390:03:42

was completely bogus.

0:03:420:03:45

We knew then we were dealing with something

0:03:450:03:47

that was more than just someone who'd switched their phone off

0:03:470:03:50

or perhaps moved house during the hire period.

0:03:500:03:53

We knew it was a fraud.

0:03:530:03:55

Neil's investigation quickly uncovered the claimant's MO.

0:03:550:03:59

The claimant would find two what he thought were overpriced cars

0:04:000:04:04

on forecourts advertised on the internet,

0:04:040:04:07

and then take out insurance using a stolen credit card

0:04:070:04:12

or payment card, and then, finding a location

0:04:120:04:15

where he felt comfortable that he could stage an accident virtually.

0:04:150:04:20

So, no accident actually took place. He just made it all up.

0:04:200:04:24

But this was merely the beginning of the con.

0:04:260:04:30

The claimant would then contact credit hire companies

0:04:300:04:33

and tell them he'd been involved in a non-fault accident

0:04:330:04:36

and try and get a replacement like-for-like car.

0:04:360:04:39

And it appeared as if Accident Exchange

0:04:390:04:41

weren't the only victims of this fraudster.

0:04:410:04:45

It turned out quite quickly that a number of credit hire companies

0:04:450:04:48

in particular, throughout the country,

0:04:480:04:51

had also been targeted by people using false identities,

0:04:510:04:55

and using the false identities

0:04:550:04:57

with false insurance policies to steal cars.

0:04:570:05:01

Neil's investigation had sussed out

0:05:010:05:03

how and where this credit hire conman was working,

0:05:030:05:06

but the biggest question remained unanswered.

0:05:060:05:11

The challenge for us was to go deeper

0:05:110:05:13

and actually find out who was the mastermind behind the scam.

0:05:130:05:16

But it wouldn't be long before Neil would get a shot

0:05:160:05:19

at flushing out this insurance cheat.

0:05:190:05:22

When a second similar claim came in, it had a number of links,

0:05:220:05:26

similarities between that one and the first one.

0:05:260:05:28

The best option for us was to set up a sting operation,

0:05:280:05:32

so we could find out his true identity.

0:05:320:05:33

The profile matched that of the unknown fraudster,

0:05:360:05:39

so instead of rejecting

0:05:390:05:42

what they were almost certain was a false claim,

0:05:420:05:44

Neil and his team took a bold step.

0:05:440:05:48

We then arranged the delivery, so the car was delivered,

0:05:480:05:51

and it was under surveillance all of the time.

0:05:510:05:53

The claimant turned up at the scene and started signing over documents,

0:05:550:06:00

so that gave us a little bit of time

0:06:000:06:03

for the person to commit to the fraud.

0:06:030:06:05

With the assistance of the Lancashire police force,

0:06:070:06:10

Neil finally had his man.

0:06:100:06:12

He was arrested and taken to Preston police station for questioning.

0:06:130:06:17

As a result of the sting operation,

0:06:180:06:20

we finally found out that the fraudster behind all of this

0:06:200:06:25

was a man called Naveed Shah.

0:06:250:06:26

Shah had been caught red-handed, but there would be no confession.

0:06:260:06:31

He initially denied any involvement.

0:06:310:06:35

He said he'd found a bag of false identity documents

0:06:350:06:39

in a bus stop locally

0:06:390:06:40

and he'd approached the credit hire company

0:06:400:06:42

just to get a nice car for a few days.

0:06:420:06:45

He had no intention of keeping the car.

0:06:450:06:47

Shah was charged with over 20 counts of fraud and vehicle theft,

0:06:470:06:51

before being released on bail.

0:06:510:06:54

But while the police built their case,

0:06:540:06:56

Shah was soon up to his old tricks.

0:06:560:06:59

Within weeks of Shah being bailed,

0:07:010:07:03

I was alerted to another attempt to defraud the industry.

0:07:030:07:08

He had approached another company in a different part of the country,

0:07:080:07:12

using a similar MO,

0:07:120:07:14

wanting another car.

0:07:140:07:17

I decided that enough was enough,

0:07:170:07:19

we needed to do yet another sting operation.

0:07:190:07:22

Using all his years of police training in covert investigations,

0:07:220:07:26

Neil once again planned and executed a staged delivery

0:07:260:07:30

with an Accident Exchange vehicle,

0:07:300:07:32

which was filmed by a member of Neil's team.

0:07:320:07:34

So you'll see Naveed Shah wearing a blue jumper.

0:07:360:07:40

You see him here signing over the documents, looking round the car,

0:07:400:07:45

and that was a tactic that we used to try and give us some time.

0:07:450:07:48

As Shah produces forged documents

0:07:480:07:51

and tries to take delivery of the car, the police are called in.

0:07:510:07:55

A police van turns up.

0:07:550:07:57

He looks over to the van

0:07:570:07:59

to see if it's just a police officer on the car park.

0:07:590:08:02

Unfortunately for him, they were there to arrest him.

0:08:020:08:05

But Shah wasn't working alone.

0:08:050:08:07

When he takes the bag from his shoulder,

0:08:070:08:09

my belief is he's indicating to two accomplices

0:08:090:08:12

at the other end of the car park

0:08:120:08:14

to almost say, "This is a signal, the police are onto us,

0:08:140:08:17

"you need to run away."

0:08:170:08:19

Unfortunately for them, there was no escape.

0:08:190:08:22

I was in the other part of the car park

0:08:220:08:24

and I detained the two other people.

0:08:240:08:27

So then you'll see the police officer walking towards Shah.

0:08:270:08:31

He doesn't put up a fight, he doesn't try and run away.

0:08:310:08:35

Then he just walks along towards the police officer

0:08:350:08:38

and then hands the bag over and almost surrenders.

0:08:380:08:42

Shah was back in custody once again.

0:08:420:08:45

He denied his involvement again.

0:08:450:08:48

All the way through, he denied any involvement

0:08:480:08:51

in relation to trying to steal the cars.

0:08:510:08:53

Still to come,

0:08:550:08:56

Neil and APU think their cover is blown

0:08:560:09:00

as one final trap is set for Naveed Shah.

0:09:000:09:03

You've got a spotter, who's in a doorway,

0:09:030:09:06

probably about 250 yards nearer the plot than you are.

0:09:060:09:10

Nowadays, there isn't much you can't do on a smartphone,

0:09:150:09:18

which undoubtedly makes them one of THE must-have gadgets.

0:09:180:09:23

That desirability and their high resale value

0:09:230:09:25

makes them very attractive to some insurance cheats.

0:09:250:09:29

But modern technology is helping to bust the attempts

0:09:290:09:32

of cellular scammers looking to make bogus claims.

0:09:320:09:35

For a while, phones got smaller.

0:09:370:09:40

But now, they seem to be growing in size once again.

0:09:400:09:44

Companies like Assurant

0:09:440:09:46

have been insuring customers' handsets

0:09:460:09:48

right through the evolution to the modern smartphone.

0:09:480:09:52

Andy Morris has made protecting people's devices his business

0:09:520:09:57

and knows full well that not all claims are as they appear.

0:09:570:10:01

This particular claim was for a high-end Apple iPhone

0:10:030:10:07

to the value of over £600.

0:10:070:10:10

The circumstances of this particular claim were not uncommon.

0:10:100:10:14

The individual had lost the phone

0:10:140:10:17

whilst on a night out with their friends

0:10:170:10:19

and lost it in the back of a taxi.

0:10:190:10:23

Easily done. But all phones have a unique identity number,

0:10:230:10:27

making them instantly trackable,

0:10:270:10:29

especially if a handset is sold to a mobile phone recycling shop.

0:10:290:10:34

Part of the validation checks that our agents go through

0:10:340:10:37

is to check with the recyclers in the marketplace

0:10:370:10:40

to see if the phone had been sold.

0:10:400:10:42

For this particular claimant,

0:10:420:10:44

what it demonstrated is that we had information

0:10:440:10:48

they had sold the handset to a recycler.

0:10:480:10:50

Having found a match on the claimant's handset

0:10:510:10:54

with one particular phone recycler, action was taken.

0:10:540:10:57

When we obtained the information

0:10:590:11:01

that this particular handset had been sold to a recycler,

0:11:010:11:06

our agents telephoned the claimant

0:11:060:11:11

to discuss the evidence that we had found.

0:11:110:11:14

The evidence was unequivocal.

0:11:470:11:50

We had the device being sold to the recycler

0:11:500:11:54

and we also had the identity of this individual

0:11:540:11:58

being verified by the recycler.

0:11:580:12:01

But the claimant would soon change his story.

0:12:010:12:03

So, during the discussion with the claimant,

0:12:050:12:08

the claimant actually admitted at one point

0:12:080:12:11

and said that they'd got into financial difficulties

0:12:110:12:13

and that was the reason that they'd sold the handset,

0:12:130:12:16

but subsequently,

0:12:160:12:18

they had returned the cash to the recycler and got the handset back.

0:12:180:12:23

Whether he'd bought the phone back or not,

0:12:230:12:25

the claimant was still trying to make an insurance claim

0:12:250:12:28

for a device he said he'd lost when he hadn't.

0:12:280:12:32

The claimant's fuse is burning ever shorter.

0:12:550:12:58

He is now saying that he DID sell his phone

0:12:580:13:00

because he needed the cash,

0:13:000:13:02

but then he bought it back and genuinely lost it.

0:13:020:13:05

Hard to believe? Well, it wasn't long

0:13:050:13:07

before his story took another handbrake turn.

0:13:070:13:10

During this very aggressive discussion,

0:13:100:13:14

the story became even more far-fetched.

0:13:140:13:17

This individual claimant then claimed

0:13:170:13:19

their friend had stolen the handset off them

0:13:190:13:22

and miraculously sold it back to the same handset recycler.

0:13:220:13:28

The call handler questions the claimant on this dubious allegation.

0:13:280:13:32

That doesn't sound like a good friend to me.

0:13:400:13:43

And the claimant is very forgiving,

0:13:430:13:46

considering what his so-called pal is alleged to have done.

0:13:460:13:50

Despite this claimant providing a far-fetched story

0:14:000:14:03

about events and what they said had happened,

0:14:030:14:06

they didn't want to inform us of who this friend was.

0:14:060:14:11

Well, his concern for his unidentified friend

0:14:220:14:26

wouldn't help his claim.

0:14:260:14:28

Rather than taking the opportunity of being honest,

0:14:280:14:31

this claimant continued with this story,

0:14:310:14:35

so we had the evidence that it was them

0:14:350:14:38

that had sold it to the recycler.

0:14:380:14:39

There was only ever one transaction.

0:14:390:14:43

We had the evidence that it was the same device.

0:14:430:14:46

The claimant became increasingly irate with the call handler.

0:14:460:14:50

During the process of our agents rejecting the claim

0:15:040:15:08

because this claimant had provided misleading information,

0:15:080:15:12

the claimant abused our staff

0:15:120:15:15

and asked us to immediately cancel his policy.

0:15:150:15:17

The evidence suggested this claimant thought pulling a phoney fast one

0:15:320:15:36

was going to be a walk in the park.

0:15:360:15:38

But insurers are using technology to stay one step ahead of the game.

0:15:380:15:42

I don't think that people realise the extent

0:15:430:15:46

that the industry works and collaborates

0:15:460:15:49

and how the mobile phone industry

0:15:490:15:52

actually has a unique identifier for every device.

0:15:520:15:56

It's no secret that staging car crashes

0:16:030:16:05

is one of the favoured scams of insurance cheats,

0:16:050:16:08

mostly as they think there's every chance they'll get away with it.

0:16:080:16:11

But with insurers and police taking a hard line

0:16:110:16:14

against any kind of crash for cash crime,

0:16:140:16:16

that couldn't be further from the truth.

0:16:160:16:20

With so much traffic on UK roads,

0:16:200:16:23

insurers are dealing with thousands

0:16:230:16:25

of motor-related personal injury claims every day.

0:16:250:16:28

But many of these are exaggerated or totally made up.

0:16:290:16:33

It's a problem AXA's head of fraud, Richard Davies,

0:16:330:16:36

is determined to fight.

0:16:360:16:39

He was recently handed one case

0:16:410:16:43

involving an AXA policyholder to investigate.

0:16:430:16:47

Qadir Hanif told us he had had a very serious motor accident.

0:16:470:16:51

He was driving along the road

0:16:510:16:52

and then he had been T-boned by somebody exiting from a junction.

0:16:520:16:55

TYRES SCREECH

0:16:550:16:57

As a result of that, his car was a total write-off,

0:16:570:17:00

he told us that he had injuries to his neck,

0:17:000:17:03

he told us that he had suffered psychological distress

0:17:030:17:06

and submitted a claim to us worth...

0:17:060:17:11

It sounded like a truly traumatic experience.

0:17:110:17:15

The driver of the other vehicle supported Hanif's version of events

0:17:150:17:19

and Richard was keen to get this sorted for the customer.

0:17:190:17:23

On the face of it, this appeared to be a genuine claim

0:17:230:17:26

for a very serious accident.

0:17:260:17:29

However, when we got to look at the vehicles,

0:17:290:17:31

the story began to fall apart.

0:17:310:17:34

Inspecting the accident damage to both cars

0:17:340:17:37

would take them a big step closer to the truth.

0:17:370:17:40

When we looked at the vehicles, there were two features

0:17:400:17:43

which our engineer told us were wrong.

0:17:430:17:45

We had been told that Mr Hanif was driving along the road

0:17:450:17:48

and that a vehicle had exited from a junction and that he'd been T-boned.

0:17:480:17:53

What you'd expect to see on Mr Hanif's car is scraping of the paint

0:17:530:17:57

and the engineer couldn't see any of that.

0:17:570:18:00

That tells us that the claim isn't genuine.

0:18:000:18:03

The evidence suggested Hanif's car had been hit whilst stationary,

0:18:030:18:08

indicating that the cars had been deliberately crashed

0:18:080:18:12

in a staged collision.

0:18:120:18:14

At this point, our engineer is reporting

0:18:140:18:17

that the claim could not be genuine because the evidence

0:18:170:18:21

of the damage to the vehicles didn't stack up with the injuries

0:18:210:18:25

which Qadir said he was suffering.

0:18:250:18:27

And on digging into Hanif's medical records,

0:18:270:18:30

it was discovered he was actually claiming

0:18:300:18:33

for £1,000 of physio treatment he never actually received.

0:18:330:18:37

But despite the evidence against him, Hanif would not roll over.

0:18:370:18:43

Well, Qadir put up a hell of a fight with this claim.

0:18:430:18:45

He refused to accept the engineering evidence that we put to him

0:18:450:18:48

and he took us to court.

0:18:480:18:50

An interesting decision and one he would soon regret.

0:18:500:18:55

We in turn defended that claim and the judge, when we got to court,

0:18:550:19:01

found that Mr Hanif's evidence was completely dishonest.

0:19:010:19:05

As a result, we were awarded a costs order of £7,800 that time.

0:19:050:19:11

A good result for Richard and the team at AXA.

0:19:110:19:16

But their satisfaction would be short-lived.

0:19:160:19:19

At this stage, we thought that we were going to at least recover

0:19:190:19:21

some of our costs of defending this claim

0:19:210:19:24

and those costs run into thousands and thousands of pounds.

0:19:240:19:28

However, Qadir did not pay us any money at all.

0:19:280:19:31

Instead, he jumped the country.

0:19:310:19:33

He left without a trace.

0:19:330:19:35

Hanif might have done a runner to avoid having to pay hefty costs,

0:19:350:19:40

but when he returns, it won't just be customs officers waiting for him.

0:19:400:19:44

We didn't stop pursuing him.

0:19:440:19:46

We went back to the court and the judge subsequently imprisoned him

0:19:460:19:50

to eight months in jail and reinforced the costs order for us

0:19:500:19:55

to the value of £10,000.

0:19:550:19:57

And for those who think Hanif still got off lightly...

0:19:570:20:00

Were Mr Hanif to return to the country,

0:20:000:20:02

he would be stopped at the border,

0:20:020:20:04

he would be arrested and he would be sent to jail for eight months.

0:20:040:20:08

Previously, Neil Thomas had exposed serial fraudster Naveed Shah,

0:20:140:20:18

who was stealing fraudulently obtained credit hire vehicles

0:20:180:20:22

from across the UK.

0:20:220:20:23

But despite Shah having been caught

0:20:230:20:26

and arrested twice in two separate staged delivery operations,

0:20:260:20:30

new evidence suggested he was potentially going for a third car.

0:20:300:20:34

Even though Naveed Shah had been arrested and given bail,

0:20:340:20:39

you would think that that would have taught him to keep his head down

0:20:390:20:44

and not get involved in any other offences,

0:20:440:20:46

certainly whilst he's on bail.

0:20:460:20:47

However, I was alerted to another potential claimant

0:20:470:20:51

using the same way of operating.

0:20:510:20:54

My decision was to, again, do another staged delivery.

0:20:540:20:58

We didn't know whether it would be a separate claimant,

0:20:580:21:01

somebody working with Naveed Shah or Naveed himself.

0:21:010:21:05

Well, it was time to find out.

0:21:050:21:08

With the support of the Lancashire police force,

0:21:080:21:10

Neil and the APU operations team travelled to Blackburn,

0:21:100:21:13

where the vehicle delivery was due to take place.

0:21:130:21:16

We've done all the final preparations,

0:21:170:21:19

we've made sure that the driver

0:21:190:21:21

is comfortable with what he has to say to the client,

0:21:210:21:25

most importantly made sure that he's comfortable,

0:21:250:21:28

that he's got a danger signal.

0:21:280:21:29

It's going to be quite a challenge for us

0:21:290:21:32

to deliver the car and not be seen.

0:21:320:21:35

Shah had been getting away with his scam thus far with careful planning

0:21:350:21:39

and, given his recent arrests,

0:21:390:21:42

would more than likely be extra cautious during today's pick-up.

0:21:420:21:45

What we're looking for is any counter-surveillance people,

0:21:450:21:51

any people that are going to spot us as we approach.

0:21:510:21:54

We've got to be on our toes.

0:21:540:21:56

Soon, Neil's fears are confirmed.

0:21:560:21:59

There is a spotter on the right.

0:21:590:22:01

There is a spotter on the right, just there coming out of the shop.

0:22:010:22:04

-This one here?

-Yeah. The man in the grey, with the white hood.

0:22:040:22:08

So he warns the APU team member

0:22:080:22:10

posing as the vehicle delivery driver.

0:22:100:22:13

You've got a spotter who's in a doorway,

0:22:130:22:15

probably about 250 yards nearer the plot than you are.

0:22:150:22:20

The delivery driver, codename Nathan,

0:22:200:22:22

has arrived at the prearranged drop-off location.

0:22:220:22:25

So the situation now is that we've parked out of the way.

0:22:270:22:32

We're waiting on a phone call from Nathan, the delivery driver.

0:22:340:22:36

He's made a phone call to the client just to make the delivery.

0:22:360:22:41

The claimant is reportedly en route to take delivery of the car

0:22:410:22:45

and the APU team are in position.

0:22:450:22:48

But Neil's concerned the claimant may have had a tip-off.

0:22:480:22:51

It's a little bit of a stalemate. We've got some spotters in the area,

0:22:510:22:55

the delivery driver is in the car waiting for the person to turn up.

0:22:550:22:58

With no sign of the claimant,

0:23:060:23:08

Neil makes a call to the driver and ups the ante.

0:23:080:23:11

I think what we need to do now is move it to the next level.

0:23:110:23:14

So, if you're comfortable, I think probably go to the door.

0:23:140:23:19

Neil and his team are highly trained in covert surveillance operations.

0:23:190:23:23

Nevertheless, this move is still a calculated risk.

0:23:230:23:27

Neil receives a call from the delivery driver.

0:23:280:23:32

Yeah, OK. OK, I'll come back to you shortly.

0:23:320:23:34

Well, the situation now is that the delivery driver's still waiting.

0:23:370:23:40

He's been to the client's address,

0:23:400:23:41

there's no reply at the client's door

0:23:410:23:43

and the client's mobile phone is off

0:23:430:23:45

so we're still waiting for contact with the client.

0:23:450:23:48

But that would soon change.

0:23:480:23:51

The driver has contacted the client, who's answered the phone,

0:23:510:23:54

who now says that he's at a hospital appointment

0:23:540:23:58

in the Manchester area

0:23:580:24:01

so we're unable to deliver the car at the moment.

0:24:010:24:04

We've asked him if he wants us to go to Manchester,

0:24:040:24:06

but he's declined that so we're a little bit stuck at the moment.

0:24:060:24:12

Neil informs the rest of the team.

0:24:120:24:15

It's a stand-down, we made contact with the client

0:24:170:24:20

or Nathan has, the delivery driver.

0:24:200:24:23

He's saying he's in Manchester at a hospital appointment,

0:24:230:24:26

so I think that's it for today, we can't do much else.

0:24:260:24:29

OK, thank you. Bye-bye.

0:24:290:24:31

The bogus claim submitted had all the hallmarks of Naveed Shah.

0:24:330:24:37

But, in truth, there was no way to know whether this particular scam

0:24:370:24:40

was orchestrated by him or any of his accomplices.

0:24:400:24:44

What was certain, though, was that, thanks to APU's investigation,

0:24:440:24:48

the police now had enough evidence to prosecute him.

0:24:480:24:51

By this point, it was estimated that Shah had fraudulently obtained

0:24:510:24:55

and subsequently stolen a quarter of a million pounds' worth of cars.

0:24:550:25:00

There were about ten vehicles stolen by Shah and the accomplices.

0:25:000:25:06

We haven't identified, as yet, the accomplices.

0:25:060:25:09

Some of the vehicles have been found and recovered,

0:25:100:25:14

others are still outstanding.

0:25:140:25:16

We're still working with the police

0:25:160:25:18

to try and identify where those vehicles are.

0:25:180:25:19

Shah had been perpetrating his scam across the UK.

0:25:190:25:24

But the case was ultimately taken on by the Lancashire Constabulary

0:25:240:25:28

and overseen by DI Tim McDermott.

0:25:280:25:32

Mr Shah was originally charged with 26 offences

0:25:320:25:35

that related to either the theft or attempted theft

0:25:350:25:38

of motor vehicles or fraud offences.

0:25:380:25:41

And given the level of sophistication of Shah's scam,

0:25:410:25:45

investigators knew there was no way he could have been working alone.

0:25:450:25:49

There came a point during the court process

0:25:500:25:52

when it was deemed appropriate

0:25:520:25:54

that the charges should be combined into a conspiracy charge

0:25:540:25:58

to encompass all the evidence that we had in front of us.

0:25:580:26:02

So he was then charged with conspiring with persons unknown

0:26:020:26:05

to commit the fraud and the theft offences

0:26:050:26:07

and it was on that basis that Mr Shah eventually pleaded guilty.

0:26:070:26:10

So, Shah had finally put his hands up to his crimes.

0:26:120:26:15

However, his victims aren't just the insurers

0:26:150:26:18

and credit hire companies he targeted.

0:26:180:26:20

In this case, you have vehicles that are stolen and not recovered

0:26:220:26:25

and you need to think about who or where those vehicles have gone to,

0:26:250:26:28

who's bought them.

0:26:280:26:29

So has it been bought by a law-abiding member of the public

0:26:290:26:32

who has spent their last pennies on buying a nice car

0:26:320:26:35

for their family, but ends up losing the car

0:26:350:26:37

because it's subsequently identified as being stolen?

0:26:370:26:40

Shah's arrogance and contempt for the law was ultimately his undoing.

0:26:400:26:45

There's no doubt that Mr Shah thought

0:26:450:26:48

that the MO he'd come up with was sophisticated

0:26:480:26:51

and that he was extremely confident

0:26:510:26:54

that it was too complex for us to be able to unravel.

0:26:540:26:57

The end result, as you can see, is that he goes to jail.

0:26:570:27:00

Shah severely underestimated the determination

0:27:000:27:03

of companies like Accident Exchange and the police.

0:27:030:27:07

Having already pled guilty to conspiring to commit fraud

0:27:070:27:10

and vehicle theft, he returns to court to be sentenced.

0:27:100:27:13

In Preston Crown Court today,

0:27:150:27:17

Naveed Shah received a sentence of two years immediate custody.

0:27:170:27:22

There were some gasps in the public seating.

0:27:220:27:26

I think it was a shock to both Shah and certainly the people with him.

0:27:260:27:30

It's a satisfying result for Neil and all the staff at APU.

0:27:300:27:36

We've actually brought Naveed Shah

0:27:360:27:38

out from the shadows, into the light.

0:27:380:27:41

I think the right decision was made today

0:27:410:27:43

and it's another fraudster taken off the streets.

0:27:430:27:46

Whether it's exaggerating real injuries,

0:27:510:27:54

totally making up a story for a dodgy claim

0:27:540:27:56

or masterminding insurance fraud on an industrial scale,

0:27:560:28:00

insurers are coming down hard on the people

0:28:000:28:03

who think they can make a quick buck with their scams and cons.

0:28:030:28:06

But the fraudsters need to think again.

0:28:060:28:08

There's more of them than ever before being caught in the act

0:28:080:28:12

and Claimed and Shamed.

0:28:120:28:15

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS