Birmingham Remains The UKs Crash For Cash Capital

Thursday, 31 March 2016 11:45

The insurance company Aviva detected more than 3,000 organised crash for cash claimants last year – or one every three hours – with one-in-four of these claims occurring in Birmingham.

In our region Leeds and Bradford made the top ten for crash for cash claimants (see the chart below).

The number of induced accidents (where fraudsters deliberately target innocent motorists to cause accidents in order to claim whiplash compensation) remained worryingly close to 2014’s record levels, dropping just 2% in 2015, according to figures from Aviva.

Conversely, the number of “staged” (when two damaged cars are brought together to make it look like an accident) and bogus accidents detected by Aviva fell by 40%.

Motor fraud remains the largest source of fraud Aviva detects, representing 60% of all claims fraud with a value of £58m. One-in-nine whiplash claims submitted to Aviva is tainted by fraud, and Aviva has more than 17,000 suspicious whiplash claims under investigation, with 4,000 motor injury claims linked to known fraud rings.

Tom Gardiner, Head of Fraud, Aviva, said, “We remain very concerned that fraudsters continue to put their own greed ahead of innocent motorists’ safety.” “Crash for cash does not just push up premiums for genuine customers, it puts innocent motorists at risk. It is also a significant drain on scarce public resources such as ambulance, police and A&E time, all of which are wasted on these entirely bogus claims. The number of whiplash claims is a problem unique to the UK and needs urgent reform.”

Top 10 locations for induced accidents in 2015:

2015 Top 10 Crash for Cash Locations	2014 rank
1. Birmingham	1st
2. North London	3rd
3. East London	New entrant
4. Leeds	5th
5. Harrow	7th
6. North West London	8th
7. Bradford	9th
8. Luton	2nd
9. Coventry	New entrant
10. Oldham	New entrant

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