West Horndon 'cash for crash' trio avoid jailA FAMILY have admitted trying to obtain up to £25,000 in a ‘crash for cash’ insurance fraud in Essex.
Paramjit Singh, his wife Manjinder Randhawa and her sister Rajwinder Kaur all submitted compensation claims after alleging that they had been injured in a car crash at the A127/A128 junction at West Horndon.
But a year-long investigation by Essex Police showed that although Singh’s car had been damaged none of them were in the vehicle at the time.
It was being driven by a man who told the family that they could make money if they let him drive the Astra car and be involved in a staged crash.
On Sunday October 4 2010 on the roundabout near Halfway House a VW Golf car deliberately swerved in front of the Astra forcing it to brake hard.
An innocent driver, a man from Basildon on his way home from work, could not avoid the Astra and a slight collision occurred. They exchanged details. But an independent witness saw what happened and managed to follow the Golf long enough to take the index number before it drove off at speed.
Singh submitted claims to the innocent driver’s insurance company for damage to his car, car hire and a claim for whiplash and tissue damage. The two women also claimed for injuries. The total value of their claims was estimated at between £20,000 - £25,000.
An investigation was started by the insurance company when they checked the circumstances of the collision and found that the VW Golf had been involved in similar incidents, including others near Halfway House, and had been investigated by the Metropolitan Police.
All three suspects were arrested, Randhawa being detained as she stepped off a plane at Heathrow Airport.
All three were interviewed on numerous occasions, and throughout maintained their innocence. They all denied being involved in the collision, making insurance claims, seeing their GPs in respect of alleged injuries, attending a medical appointment with a consultant to reinforce their claim for injuries and engaging a firm of solicitors to represent them during their civil claims.
Singh even contacted his GP after being arrested in an attempt to have his medical records changed to cover up the fact that he had visited his doctor shortly after the crash. Having initially told his doctor that he had been involved in a crash, he tried to change this to ‘falling down the stairs’.
The investigating officers, PCs Dave Gorbutt and Tony Wilmot of the Essex Police Serious Collision Investigation Unit, also obtained house search warrants, and production orders issued by Crown Court judges to find vital evidence from medical records. Forensic analysis of fingerprints and handwritten was also undertaken. All three then pleaded guilty to with conspiracy to defraud.
At Basildon Crown Court on Monday December 1, Singh, 46, a mini cab driver of Brookdene Road, Plumstead, south London was jailed for a year. Randhawa, 37, a housewife and Kaur, 29, a machine operator of the same address, were both given a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months. They were also ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work. All three were ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £100.
PC Gorbutt said after the hearing: "Many people might consider that these crimes are victimless, however the cost to the insurance industry amounts to millions of pounds each year. This cost is borne by everybody who takes out an insurance policy, adding an extra £50 to £100 a year on each policy.
"In addition, staged crashes can never be carried out safely. The unpredictable nature of these crashes places great risk to the motoring public and it is only by luck that no-one was seriously hurt in this instance.”
source:
http://www.brentwoodweeklynews.co.uk/ne ... void_jail/
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