We report today the case of Mohammed Iqbal, a private hire driver who blotted his previous good character with an insurance scam. A minor bump with another car, causing slight damage to the wheel trim of the minibus he was driving, was inflated into a flagrantly fraudulent claim.
Iqbal and three members of his family – who were not even in the vehicle at the time – alleged they had suffered personal injuries.
One of Iqbal’s sons Jehangir, aged 29, even had a previous conviction for a similar scam. All four pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, with Jehangir Iqbal given a seven and half month suspended prison sentence and ordered to do 200 hours community work, Mohammed Iqbal and 23-year old son Hassan sentenced to 150 hours work in the community and Mohammed’s wife Kausar Parveen ordered to wear an electronic tag and observe a nightly curfew.
This family chanced their arm because they knew others had done the same and come away with thousands. There is even a phrase for such scams – ‘crash for cash’ – and the north west has a dubious reputation as one of the nation’s hot spots for this criminal activity.
The Insurance Fraud Bureau estimates that 30,000 accidents are staged every year, yielding bogus claims averaging £17,000 each. These scams cost insurance companies £350m in 2009, which translates into an additional £44 on the premium of every driver.
The extent of such crime was never better illustrated than in the case last year of Mohammed Patel, from Bolton, who was jailed for four and a half years. Patel staged hundreds of collisions on the A34 Handforth bypass over a period of three years, slamming on his brakes so that other drivers crashed into the back of his vehicle. Whiplash claims were then filed by people who were not even in the car at the time. These ‘accidents’ resulted in fraudulent claims totalling £1.6m.
The Iqbal family believed they too could earn such easy money. Their reward is a stain on their characters and the punishment of the court. But there is a ‘punishment’ here for all of us. What insurance companies lose through bogus claims, they recover through premiums.
The fraudsters may think they commit a victimless crime against a faceless corporation. In truth, they take money directly from the pockets of law-abiding motorists.
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/
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