'Crash for cash' fraudster jailed for staging car accidents
- 00:01:21
- ITN
'Crash for cash' fraudster jailed for staging car accidents
A fraudster who cost the insurance industry £1.6 million after staging so-called "crash for cash" accidents has been jailed for four-and-a-half years. Mohammed Patel, 24, charged £500 to stage crashes, enabling the other driver to claim an average of £17,000 thousand from insurers. He staged at least 93 crashes, earning himself around £46,000, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard. The 24-year-old, of Nottingham Drive, Bolton, Greater Manchester, admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud, six counts of dangerous driving and four counts of driving while disqualified. He has been banned from driving for three-and-a-half years. The scam was exposed by suspicious office workers who overlooked the Eden Point roundabout where a lot of the crashes took place. They became suspicious that road traffic accidents were being "staged" because of the frequency of incidents. The court heard he used the money to fund luxury foreign holidays, expensive cars and designer clothes. William Baker, prosecuting, said:"He drove cars on to the roundabout and then stopped them so abruptly the vehicle behind could not avoid a collision. He did this because of the widely-held belief that the person who drives into the rear of someone else is in the wrong and they will admit liability."
ITN | October 21, 2009
