Crash for cash scammers at work in S/Essex

[TugsW]

Sorry folks without wishing to sound like the Daily Mail or one of those rubbish chain E-mails, the o'l insurance scammers are at work in south Essex area. Seeing as there are a few other ppl from the South Essex area I thought I would mention it.

4 people at my workplace have had "crashes" on the slip road while joining the A13 over the past week or so, every car has pulled into the slip road in front of them and braked hard. I saw another pair of cars the other day while joining the A13 eastbound from Stanford-le-Hope that had crashed (that may or may not been a scam).

I only hope if it happens to me instinct does not take over and I brake...

Steve

[Mr Hoarder]

Thanks for the warning - that's right on my doorstep !!

[hotrs2000]

Yep its true, we have this alot with our LGV's, there is a Met Police phone number to call if you think the RTC is a scam, when I'm at work tonight I will post up the info for you.

[hotrs2000]

Scam RTC info

We have given this info to our LGV drivers, as we have had quite a few over the last few years

Scam RTA’s – What to do at scene
LONDON: Commercial Vehicle operators in Greater London are at high risk of deliberately induced road collisions said the Metropolitan Police.
Organised criminal groups are targeting companies who operate vehicle fleets within the M25 area by deliberately causing collisions in order to defraud their insurers. Operation Catcher is a Metropolitan Police initiative, intended to identify an offence when it happens, prosecute the offenders and, as a result, reduce the incidence of this type of crime.
Drivers that suspect they are victim of an induced collision should call police on the non-emergency number 0300 123 1212 and request an OPERATION CATCHER response. Drivers should not inform the other vehicle driver that police have been called and then exchange insurance and other details including the names and details of all passengers.
Typically, the criminals will use two cars to target their victim. These cars will get ahead of the company vehicle in steady moving traffic, the first will then brake hard or make an unexpected manoeuvre, this will cause the second car to brake hard (often using the handbrake to avoid alerting the intended victim) and result in a collision.
The first car will make off while the second, now damaged car will stop. The occupants of this second car will make a point of blaming the car that has made off and appear to sympathise with their victim. Driver details are often already written down and insurance and registration documents are carried in their car.
The driver will speak English while the other occupants do not.
For more information contact the Road Crime Intelligence Unit on 0207 161 1011 (Mon - Fri).

[jaffa]

This sounds so familier to what happened to me last year on the a128 bulphan turn off,
had a piece of s**t nissan people carrier stop dead infront of me for no reason,i was driving a loaded 18ton truck and couldnt stop intime hence my cargo shiffting through hard breaking and a nissan attached to the front end of the truck..
low and behold 3 x asians got out,one on the phone already the others didnt speak english,he had his details wriiten down before i could even find a pen !!

at the time i thought it was strange,now it starts to ring some bells reading that... the good news though my company paid out for the claim,so it didnt really bother me...although now i wished i didnt break so hard,and done a better job on the nissan...

kev

[hotrs2000]

Couple of years ago I went to court over one of these scams as I attended the scene and took photos.
In court was the person who owned the vehicle, his wife and their young child who all said they where in the 3rd party vehicle but on the night in question the driver was a young male (mid 20's) and 2 friends.
Due to the photos we proved the poeple in court where not there so we won the case.
Royal Mail still paid for the repairs to the 3rd party vehicle as we did damage it, paid out about £1500 but due to the claim been under £5000 it shouldn't of gone to court so we put in a counter claim for waisted time and we won that and Royal Mail was paid £18000.
The 3rd party was £16500 out of pocket, but if you look into these scam RTC's its run by gangs who often use mini-cab vehicles that are not owned by them, have the crash then the owner is told by the gang to attend court as they are often paying these gangs protection money.