A man and woman from Birmingham have been arrested by officers from the City of London police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) as part of an investigation into a suspected ‘crash for cash’ gang.
The case was referred to IFED detectives after analysts from the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) identified suspicious links between a number of collisions and related insurance claims in the Birmingham area.
The IFB acts as a central data hub for the insurance industry to detect and disrupt organised motor insurance fraud and works in partnership with police forces to support the arrests of suspected fraudsters.
IFED officers carried out search warrants at three addresses in Birmingham on Tuesday morning and arrested a 36-year-old man and 28-year-old woman on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.
A large number of documents, mobile phones and laptops were seized and the man and woman were questioned by detectives at a West Midlands police station before being released on bail.
Officers also interviewed a man in his 30s in connection with the investigation after attending the police station voluntarily.
So far, at least seven induced collisions connected to the gang have been identified, in and around the Birmingham area. Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full extent of the fraud.
Detective Constable Paula Doyle, from the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department said:
“We suspect this gang has been involved in a number of collisions where they’ve targeted completely innocent drivers on the roads.
“It’s important that the public are aware that there are still criminals out there who are prepared to deliberately cause them to crash into them in order to submit fraudulent insurance claims against their insurance companies. Drivers should be wary of this and if you have any suspicion that you’ve been targeted in this way, you contact the police and your insurance company straight away.”
Ben Fletcher, Director of the IFB said: “Crash for cash scams have a real impact on society – lives are put at risk and ultimately honest policy holders are paying the price. The insurance industry takes fraud very seriously and these arrests demonstrate the importance of IFB, IFED and insurers taking a cross industry approach to tackling fraud.”
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