A woman involved in a ‘crash for cash’ on a Manchester A-road that was caught on the victim’s in-car dashboard camera has received a 14 month suspended prison sentence.
Alina Khan was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court having previously admitted to the part she played in inducing the collision in a bid to get £26,000 from LV= for bogus insurance claims after an investigation by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).
The sentencing of her co-conspirators Kamran Yasin and Sarfaraz Ahmed, who had also previously pleaded guilty, was rearranged for September.
In June 2011 Sarfaraz Ahmed, owner of accident management company ‘AMC Claims’, pursued an insurance claim on behalf of Alina Khan who had reported that the rear of her silver Audi had been damaged in a collision with a Vauxhall Corsa on the Chester Road.
The claim was for recovery and storage of the silver Audi as well as a courtesy car – a black Audi.
Khan also submitted a separate personal injury claim for whiplash.
But footage handed to LV= of the incident from the Vauxhall’s dashboard camera showed the silver Audi brake without warning, sending the Vauxhall into the back of it.
It also captured the black Audi ‘courtesy car’ in the Vauxhall’s vicinity before the crash and pulling up on its nearside immediately after the collision.
This led LV= to make a referral to IFED and detectives uncovered evidence that the Audis had been driven around Manchester after the collision. They also found that the silver Audi had been driven through West Yorkshire during the time it was supposedly in storage.
Further investigation revealed that Yasin and Ahmed were friends and that it was Yasin who had called Ahmed after the collision to get him to put in the claims to LV=.
It was also found that Khan did not own the silver Audi and that Yasin has insured himself on the black Audi the day of the collision.
In May 2012 Khan was arrested at her home and Yasin was arrested at a police station. A month later, Ahmed was arrested at his home. The three were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and later pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation.
City of London Police Detective Constable Mick Jones, who led the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department’s investigation, said: “This fraud was planned and executed by a group of friends who decided that making phony insurance claims off the back of an induced accident was an easy way to bolster their bank accounts.
“The fact they were putting lives at risk by deliberately causing a crash on a busy road did not hold them back. As the video footage of their crime shows, they wanted the insurer’s money and were prepared to go to extreme lengths to get it.
Martin Milliner, LV= Claims Director, said: “We take a strong line against fraud and as soon as we saw the evidence that this accident was deliberate we handed the details to the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department. The cost of dealing with fraudulent claims pushes up the cost of car insurance for honest motorists and we will always push for the most serious punishment.”