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A “crash for cash” insurance scam is a staged or purposely caused car crash in order for the parties involved to fraudulently claim insurance for injuries such as whiplash.
Aviva, one of the Uk’s largest car insurance firms have uncovered over 800 of these scams in 2013 alone. From their statistics they have estimated that over two-thousand personal injury claims were submitted fraudulently.
A lack of punishment and deterrents for people who are involved in this type of fraud is the most commonly blamed reason for the sharp increase in the number of cases in recent years. For taking part in such cash for crash insurance claims, the most common punishment is a community order.
These scams have been closely linked to gang crime and it is thought that the majority of them are carried out by organised gangs of criminals.
As a result of this fraud, every day motorists are forced to pay higher and higher car insurance premiums to cover the compensation that is paid out to undetected fraudulent claims.
In previous years the crashes were more commonly staged to only involve the criminals involved; one of the parties would drive into the other purposely and then both parties would claim injury compensation. In recent years there have been more investigations into claims for false injuries such as whiplash.
These investigations mean that the gangs are having to organise more “real” crashes where for example they will slam their brakes on, forcing the motorist behind to crash into them.
Drivers have been warned by Aviva to be extra careful at junctions and crossings as this is where most crash for cash incidents are set up.
