£12m ‘crash for cash’ fixer jailed

Mohammed Patel

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A driver who staged 93 car crashes so motorists could claim up to £12 million insurance payouts has been jailed for four and a half years.

Mohammed Patel (24), who worked for an accident claims company, was given £500 bungs to stunt road smashes in a three-year ‘’crash for cash’’ scam.

He earned at least £46,000 from his frauds and spent the money on a Mercedes C class coupe and a Lincoln Navigator 4x4, designer clothes, a plasma TV and exotic holidays for him and his girl friend.

Patel used other people’s cars to target innocent motorists at roundabouts.

Twenty other drivers who have pleaded guilty to being involved in the scam will be sentenced later.

They include Abdul and Shahid Latif of Chadderton Way, Mohammed Hafizur Rahman of Trafalgar Street, and Sayam Ahmed of Norman Street, all Oldham.

All face having their profits seized under Proceeds of Crimes laws.

The court heard that Patel slammed on the brakes so victims had no chance of avoiding ploughing into the back of him.

The greedy owners then sued innocent drivers for damages and injuries at an average £17,000 a time.

But office workers overlooking a roundabout on the A34 near Cheadle spotted Patel being involved in various crashes of striking similarity and told the innocent victims.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Patel, of Bolton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, six counts of dangerous driving and four of driving while disqualified, and was banned from driving for three-and-a-half years.

Judge Bernard Lever told him: “This is not a victimless fraud. Fraudulent insurance claims cost the industry £1.9 billion a year and this adds about £49 to every single motorist’s insurance premium.

“£350 million of these claims arose out of staged accidents like the ones you committed. The decent motorists of this country are disgusted by this conduct and are sick and tired of paying for it.

“In this case you have been staging accidents all over the North-West of England.”

William Baker, prosecuting, said police found 700 false claims were made.

He said: “He (Mohammed Patel) drove cars on to roundabouts then stopped them so abruptly the vehicle behind could not avoid a collision.

“He did this because of the widely held belief that a person who drives into the rear of someone else’s car is to blame for the collision. So it was likely that they would admit liability and not challenge the insurance claim.”

When Patel was arrested last year police recovered £2,136 in cash, a receipt for a £965 TV, rent payments totalling over £5,000, evidence of flights to Barcelona costing over £400, a £215 receipt for Selfridges, over £100 receipts for Toys R Us and Marks and Spencer, and several bank deposit slips totalling £1,300.

Patel’s girl friend, Ettorina Hay (29) told police that he gave her money including £1,000 to travel to South Africa to visit her brother, and holidays to Turkey, Barcelona and France.

Hay’s case was adjourned until December 22.

Richard Davies, deputy chairman of the Insurance Bureau, said: “A custodial sentence is entirely appropriate. That should be the strongest message that we will not tolerate insurance fraud on our roads.

“We have 28 ongoing operations across the country of this sort.”