The Insurance Fraud Bureau has revealed that as many as 1,000 organised crime gangs are targeting petrol tankers and other heavy commercial vehicles in increasingly audacious ‘cash for crash’ scams.
The Insurance Fraud Bureau has revealed that as many as 1,000 organised crime gangs are targeting petrol tankers and other heavy commercial vehicles in increasingly audacious ‘cash for crash’ scams.
The IFB has warned that the number of attacks could escalate to over 40 per day unless action is taken, as the staged accidents gangs ramp up their activities across the country.
Speaking at the Insurance Times Future of Personal Injury Claims conference, Richard Davies, deputy chairman of the IFB, said: “We have seen accidents across the industry, not only involving large vehicles, but petrol tankers.
“Rumour has it the game is to see whether the petrol tanker is full or not. Organised crime is serious stuff. It is dangerous.”
There could be over 22,000 staged accidents in the next 18 months alone, almost equaling the total number of incidents since 1999.
There are also concerns that the proliferation of staged accidents is increasingly gravitating to the South East.
John Beadle chairman of the IFB said: “Once a localised problem, it now seems to be widespread.
“There is evidence that gangs are franchising out.”
The IFB is calling for closer collaboration between insurers, lawyers and law enforcement agencies to identify the fraudsters.
It also said it would grow its membership, currently standing at 34 insurers (over 90% of the market) and 12 companies including local authorities and public transport companies.
Typically, in ‘crash for cash’ scams, the fraudsters drive to busy road junctions and 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. For each successful scam, the criminals can net up to £30,000 and there is growing evidence to show that the proceeds from this type of fraud are used to fund other forms of serious crime including drugs trafficking and gun running.
“We can never do enough,” added Scott Clayton, claims fraud investigation manager at Zurich.
“Gangs are learning. They are reviewing their strategy just as we are reviewing ours.”
Meanwhile, the IFB has called for the issue of fraud to be raised higher on the government agenda. Davies pointed to the “crucible of fraud specific activity,” including the Government Fraud Review, the recent introduction of the Fraud Act, the FSA’s Fraud and Statutory Objective and the Serious and Organised Crime Bill, which allows for public and private data sharing – a key component in identifying fraud networks.
Davies continued: “There will be a number of things coming out of these initiatives, in particular the National Fraud Reporting centre, and the use of the City of London police as lead force for fraud.” investigation.”
