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.

Police said he staged at least 92 crashes between 2005 and 2008, each time persuading the other driver that they were at fault.

The plot was uncovered after workers in an office block by the main A34 road in Cheadle, near Manchester, became suspicious about a regular number of crashes taking place at a nearby roundabout.

AXA insurance, one of the firms caught up in the scam, investigated and contacted police.

Detectives found that Patel deliberately caused crashes for his clients by braking suddenly so the vehicle behind could not avoid a collision.

The claimants then demanded compensation from the victim’s insurance firm for personal injury, legal fees, courtesy cars, and often with the damage to the cars fabricated.

Patel himself raked in around £46,000 (€50,853) for his role, and from his earnings he treated his girlfriend to gifts, two luxury cars and foreign holidays, police said.

Another 24 co-conspirators are also due to be sentenced for their roles in the scam.