‘Cash for crash’ is an insurance scam that involves scammers deliberately causing accidents in order to try and claim several thousands of pounds in compensation payouts.
Typically, these dodgy drivers will slam their brakes on in front of you, hoping that you will crash into the back of their vehicle at which point the driver of the car in front of you will then jump out of their car, insurance documents in hand, and take all of your details (whilst holding their neck in ‘pain’).
Due to the huge increase in the popularity of dashcams, more and more of these scammers are being exposed before their claims get anywhere.
However, one such group of scammers made the ultimate ‘boo boo’ when they targeted an unmarked police car.
Officers from Bicester tweeted about the incident in a post that said:
‘Reports of 2 cars involved in “crash for cash” in Bicester.
‘Unfortunately for one driver they tried to do it to an unmarked police car.
‘Drivers arrested in Langford Village & cars recovered.
‘If you witnessed anything please call 101 & quote reference 994 07/02/19’.
A spokesperson for the force said:
‘The incident happened yesterday (7th Jan) near Gavray Drive.
‘A car was seen driving dangerously by an officer in an unmarked police vehicle.
‘Two men; a 25-year-old and a 29-year-old were arrested in connection with the incident and have been released under investigation’.
It is estimated that these ‘crash for cash’ gangs have been responsible for around a 20% increase on private car insurance premiums over the last 5 years.
The gangs involved in this fraud often drive outside of their
Insurance companies have become better at detecting fraudulant claims with information being shared on the Claims Underwriting Exchange (CUE) database in order to weed out those responsible for staging accidents.
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