Car crashes staged in £1.6m scam

A BRITON who cost the insurance industry some £1.6 million (€1.76m) by staging almost 100 car crashes as part of a scam to win fraudulent payouts was jailed for four-and-a-half years yesterday.

Mohammed Patel, 24, charged £500 (€552) a time to stage accidents.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard the accidents enabled fraudsters to claim an average of £17,000 (€18,795) from their insurers.