League table shows 20 areas worst affected by staged accidents

Birmingham is still the UK’s ‘crash for cash’ hotspot, according to the Insurance Fraud Bureau.

The IFB ‘s latest quarterly league table of the areas staged crashes are most likely to happen shows that Birmingham, Liverpool and Blackburn remain the top three hotspots for such activity.

The table, which is based on insurance claims and police data, shows that North London has dropped from fourth to ninth position, while Bradford is the one new entrant to the top ten at eight.

New top 20 hotspots include Sheffield (11th), Warrington (14th) and Leicester (17th).

Typically, in ‘crash for cash’ scams, the IFB says fraudsters drive to busy road junctions and then perform unexpected, unnecessary and dangerous emergency stops designed to cause innocent members of the public to crash into them.

Claims are made to the innocent motorist’s insurer, often including several accounts of fictitious injuries from members of the criminal gang.

According to the IFB, there is growing evidence that the proceeds from this type of fraud are used to fund other forms of serious crime including drug trafficking and gun running.