Fraud ‘enablers’ convicted

Two Burnley brothers, Rezwean and Rehan Javed, who ran North West Claims to defraud insurers in 'crash for cash' claims have been convicted following an Insurance Fraud Bureau operation kicked off by AXA.

Rezwan Javed (born 24/11/76) and Rehan Javed (born 19/01/75) both of Dovedale Close, Burnley, Lancashire, have been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and possession of an article for use in fraud, after a trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

The pair will be sentenced in December. The IFB said it was the first “professional enabler” conviction and followed its own Operation Contact.

Burnley at the centre

The brothers ran Burnley-based claims management firm North West Claims. They organised fraudulent insurance clams following collisions deliberately caused by other members of an organised crime group.

The scam meant all of those involved would earn money from the other parties’ insurers.

AXA suspicions

AXA UK approached the IFB in 2007 with its suspicions and in January 2008 the IFB handed over evidence to Greater Manchester Police.

In October 2008, Mohammed Patel admitted being the driver in 93 forced collisions between 2005 and 2008, all of which led to exaggerated and fraudulent insurance claims.

The claimants would earn compensation for personal injuries and Patel would earn a fee for driving the cars. The biggest profit went to North West Claims for processing the claims. As part of Operation Contact, Patel was sentenced to 4.5 years imprisonment.

North West Claims made hundreds of thousands of pounds from solicitors’ referral fees, courtesy car hire and the storage and recovery of cars involved in the collisions, which on many occasions was never even needed.

Many claims management firms suspected

Glen Marr, director of the IFB said: “These are the first convictions where individuals from professional organisations - professional enablers - known to be at the heart of crash for cash scams have been brought to justice.

“Almost every IFB operation features a claims management company as a central entity. Of the current live IFB operations, each of which involves the Police, a number of claims management companies feature prominently, with some now no longer trading as a result of action taken following IFB intelligence and evidence made available to Police.

“In addition, as a result of closed IFB operations, further claims management companies have ceased to trade. The conviction of the brothers running North West Claims Centre Ltd disrupts this criminal network and sends a strong deterrent message to the broader criminal community.

More to come

“We know who the key professional enablers are and there is more to come from the industry which is fighting back to protect genuine insurance customers from subsidising the criminals.

“It demonstrates the power of the industry collective, commencing initially with AXA sharing valuable intelligence with the IFB, the ability of the industry to bring fraudsters to justice and the appetite of the Police to support industry efforts to root out fraudsters.”