Group of friends claimed £134,000 after minibus crash
Thirteen fraudsters have received suspended sentences over a staged stag party minibus crash, the Mirror reports.
The friends claimed £134,000 in insurance for whiplash injuries after setting up a crash scene between a car and a minibus they pretended to be driving for a stag party for ‘groom’ Stephen Paul in August 2009.
Prosecutor James Adkins said paramedics arriving at the scene had found the group “quite well”. He said: “The defendants were laughing, smoking and chatting on phones. What followed was a domino effect as they began to hold their necks to say they had suffered injury.”
Aviva began to investigate the claim when it discovered the driver of the car, Ben LeBlond, and girlfriend Marnie Simpson knew the driver of the minibus, Robert Paul, and the rest of the group. Investigators also discovered the damage caused to the vehicles had happened away from the alleged crash scene.
Simpson was sentenced to community service and received a supervision order after telling the court how she had been pressurised into the scam by LeBlond.
LeBlond and two other men have pleaded guilty to fraud and are awaiting sentence.
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