Have you suffered an accident on a large roundabout or busy Motorway slipway recently? Are you sure it WAS an accident?

A worrying and frightening phenomenon is becoming increasingly common on the roads of the UK. It’s the “staging” of car accidents. It may happen like this:

You pull out onto a roundabout. It may not be particularly busy and you’re following a car in front. It may be a bit of an old banger. Suddenly the driver of this car slams on his brakes, for no apparent reason. You simply can’t avoid hitting him. In some cases another car appears to cut in on the car which you’re following.

You may have just been a victim of a fraudster. What follows is a bogus claim against your insurance company. These fraudsters commonly work in gangs and may own the accident repair garage where their vehicle is “repaired”; similarly they own the car hire firm where they claim they have hired a replacement vehicle. On top of this, they may well claim for the maximum number of passengers in their vehicle, stating they all have personal injuries and subsequent loss of earnings. As the repair and hire aspect of this will no doubt be highly inflated, the claim can add up to the £30,000 mark in no time. This is costing the vehicle insurance industry up to £200m per annum and consequently putting up the cost of car insurance for everyone.

This scam started in the North-West of England, but has spread alarmingly. It is thought that gangs are marketing the techniques for these accidents country wide. There are hotspots in the North-West and these include the M6 at junction 21 and the M62 at junctions 27 and 28.

It would be extremely difficult to ensure that you avoid the crash situation entirely. Keeping your distance from the car in front is sensible and it has been noted that sometimes the occupants of the car which you’re following turn to look at you just before staging the accident. If the worst does happen, then write down as much as you can remember regarding the circumstances of the accident. Note how many people were in the car, who was driving, what they were wearing, what sex they were and anything else that you think may help your insurance company in identifying any suspicious behaviour.

So far the police seem uninterested and are loathe to get involved. Insurance fraud is not one of their priorities. However, with the increasing number of crimes, people are at risk of injury and worse and it must be taken very much more seriously.

There is now a planned national scheme to deal with organised fraud. There is a Home Office fraud review in preparation and the Association of National Insurers have put into operation a scheme to share intelligence with regard to suspicious claims. They will sort through millions of claims and work together with other insurers to get a broad idea of the crime patterns. This new Insurance Fraud Bureau will then work with the police in an endeavour to recover money which has already been paid out, via civil prosecutions against these induced-accident gangs.

As many as 10,000 accidents a year are thought to be induced by these crooks. Hopefully the steps taken by the insurers will help to substantially reduce these numbers and increase the safety of you and your passengers.