Taxi Driver Online

'Cash for crashes' gang jailed for 34 years

A gang that conned motorists out of £5.3million with a 'cash for crash' insurance fraud has been jailed for a total of 34 years.
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The gang set up Swift Accident and Credit Hire companies in Luton and put through fake and fraudulent insurance claims

The group set up an accident management company, then filed hundreds of fake insurance claims against innocent drivers.


They deliberately caused crashes with ‘vulnerable’ motorists, staged ‘accidents’ between accomplices and exaggerated car damage and personal injuries.

Jailing three of them, Judge Michael Kay QC, called the gang ‘greedy and dishonest’.

‘Personal injury claims were presented on an almost industrial scale,’ he added.

‘Doctors were presented at 15-minute intervals with persons who had whiplash.’

Gang members Istafa Hussain, Kamsan Mahmood, Hafiz Chishti, Majid Hussain and Saraj Qazi set up Swift Accident and Credit Hire in Luton.

They then enlisted the help of 32 friends, including vehicle assessor Christopher Fennessy, 38, to file fake claims between August 2005 and November 2006.

‘Swift was a vehicle for dishonesty from the start and we have not come across a single claim that was not criminal in part,’ prosecutor David Farrell QC told Luton crown court.

The gang enlisted taxi drivers, solicitors and other professionals to put their names on fraudulent claims averaging £9,000 each.

When faking damage to vehicles, they used a JCB at a farm.

Ringleaders Chishti, 35, Qazi, 30, and Majid Hussain, 34, were jailed earlier for a total of 13 years after an investigation into 180 ‘accidents’ and 230 con claims.

Yesterday, Mahmood, 45, was jailed for four-and-a-half years for conspiracy to defraud and six months for mortgage fraud.

Istafa Hussain, 35, received four-and-a-half years for conspiracy to defraud and accomplice Peter Charlery, 45, was jailed for 18 months.

Other accomplices had already received jail terms or community service, with Fennessy getting 12 months.

Irtiza Fazal, 40, was found not guilty of involvement
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Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I wonder how many other scams like this there are?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Loads.

However as the prosecution said they couldn't find a legit claim, why on earth did insurance companies pay out every single time?

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IDFIMH

Dear god...that reads like a "Who's Who" of asylum seekers...is it any wonder folk have had enough of all these immigrants coming over here with their deviant and scheming ways.. We'll not give them the good life they seek here but they will bring us all down to the lowlife levels that they seek to escape from....!

My dad was involved in an accident a couple of years ago. He swears blind that the other car hit him and the damage to the car would also sugest this but a witness appeared out of nowhere and the insurance paid out. My dad was not a happy man.

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Grandad,

Interesting... that the doctors who certified the injuries don't seem to be prosecuted..

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Yet..............

They may have been waiting for the outcome of this trial first........

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Lawyers and police upset doctors...... I don't think so.....

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Hopefully insurance premiums will now fall

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Now that really is optomistic.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/