Drivers vindicated by appeal court judges

AN OLDHAM cab driver accused of staging a road smash has been exonerated by top judges and awarded more than £28,000 in compensation.

The Co-Operative Insurance Society accused Naveed Hamid of fraud over the January 2013 road shunt.

The company insisted he and the Warrington man at the wheel of the other car involved had "conspired together" in a money-making ruse.

But the insurance giant's accusations were just "smoke and mirrors" and were roundly rejected by a judge.

Mr Hamid was driving his Skoda Octavia in Keble Avenue, Oldham, when Sheikh Khalid emerged from a side road in his Nissan Primera and hit him.

But, after Mr Hamid launched a bid for compensation, the Co-Op, which was Mr Khalid's insurers, refused to pay up. The company insisted there was a catalogue of inconsistencies in the two men's accounts of the accident.

Although the father-of-four had dialled 999 from the roadside, the Co-Op said the call was faked to lend credence to the fraud.

The company deployed a forensic collision investigator and a legal team in a bid to prove its case.

However, Judge Catherine Howells was unimpressed and awarded Mr Hamid £28,070 in damages at Manchester County Court in 2015.

'Honest'

After listening to a recording of Mr Hamid's call to police, she said it was "genuine" and had "the hallmarks of truth".

His "palpably honest" evidence was "consistent and convincing" and the judge concluded: "This was a genuine road traffic accident".

Mr Khalid, a security officer from Warrington, was also an "honest witness" who had done his best to assist the court.

He had his wife and cousin with him in the car at the time and had been visiting family in Oldham.

In snowy conditions, Mr Khalid had failed to see "give way" lines at the junction and was responsible for the collision, ruled Judge Howells.

And she accepted the two motorists "had no knowledge of each other before the accident".

"The allegations that there had been a number of inconsistencies are, in my judgment, smoke and mirrors", she said.

The Co-Op challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal.

Lord Justice Henderson rejected claims that the judge had "turned a blind eye" to signs of fraud. She had dealt adequately with the evidence, and it would be wrong to "second guess" her conclusions, he added.

Lord Justice Lewison agreed that the Co-Op's appeal should be dismissed.