Conviction in fatal ‘Crash for Cash’ case

Five men were found guilty last month of charges brought over their involvement in a fatal road traffic collision. The case, which was heard at Reading Crown Court, is thought to be the first one in the UK in which a deliberately-staged road accident then led to a second, fatal, crash.

The accident

The incident took place on the evening of Saturday 11th June 2011, on the A40 Western Avenue, between the Swakeley roundabout and Denham, heading out of London.

Two collisions took place in short succession in lane three. The first was a deliberate act in which a Volkswagen Passat and an Audi A3 were used to perform a dangerous maneuver to ensure that a collision occurred with an innocent Ford Transit Van and a Ford Fiesta.

This staged accident then led to a second collision between a Renault Traffic van and the Fiesta, which resulted in the death of Baljinder Kaur Gill, aged 34, from Stanwell, near Staines.

Four of the men were convicted for their part in the whole incident. One man, the driver of the van that fatally collided with Miss Gill, was not involved in the first accident, but was found guilty of causing death by careless driving.

Crash for cash scam

The first accident was what is known as a ‘crash for cash’ accident. It is a scam, part of a growing phenomenon, in which a road traffic accident is staged or deliberately caused in order to allow some or all of the participants to make fraudulent personal injury compensation claims.

It can take various forms:

 

* Staged accident: Two vehicles, both in the hands of the criminals, will be deliberately crashed together away from the public eye. Sometimes the fraudsters may just take a sledge hammer to the vehicles to mimic the effects of a genuine car crash.

* Induced accident: Here the fraudster targets an innocent motorist to become the ‘at fault’ driver. Typically the fraudster’s car will pull in front of the victim, slam on the brakes and - if the driver behind can’t stop in time- be shunted from the rear. Fraudsters often disable brake lights in their vehicles to give the unsuspecting victim no chance of stopping in time.

* Ghost accident: These are paper based frauds which involve submitting completely fabricated claims for accidents that never took place and in some cases for cars that do not even exist.

Scale of the problem

According to the Insurance Fraud Bureau (‘IFB’), ‘Crash for Cash’ scams cost the British motorist an estimated £392 million each year, and one in seven personal injury claims are linked to organised fraud.

“This tragic case illustrates the very real danger ‘crash for cash’ poses to UK motorists,” said IFB Director Phil Bird. “It’s not just a criminal enterprise costing £392 million every year and inflating every policyholder’s premium. By deliberately causing accidents, organised criminal gangs are putting people in danger and gambling with the lives of innocent people.”

Convictions

According to Sergeant Jim Upton, from the Three Mile Cross Roads Policing department, this was a despicable act that led to the tragic death of an innocent motorist.

“The actions of these men who set out to induce a collision at speed on a 70mph limit road were always likely to lead to death or serious injury,” he said. “They were purely motivated by greed and a determination to abuse the compensation culture that is prevalent in crash for cash.”

They will be sentenced on 15th February.