False car accident claim

[thejackel1980]

I have received a letter from someone's car insurance company saying I was involved in an accident with their customers car.

 

They are stating my car crashed into their customers car while it was parked.

 

A witness has given our number plate, although not 100% sure (but could not give a car make and model).

 

 

The point is, the accident happened over 350 miles away from where I live??

 

I was at work till 4:30pm and the accident happened at 6pm so can prove I was 350 miles away from the scene of the accident (this would assume I'd travelled 350miles in 1.5 hours in order to be placed at the scene of the accident?!).

 

I've explained this to my insurance company but the customer is still accusing me of causing the crash and is refusing to drop the claim.

 

 

The claim has been dragging on for 4 months now and the problem is my insurance renewal is up next month and I have to state I have a claim pending.

 

My insurance company has already told me because of this claim my premium will go up!! How bloody frustrating!

 

I'm 100% confident the claim will be overturned because I can prove it couldn't have possibly been me in the crash.

 

This won't stop my premium going up (unless they sort it in the next 6 weeks).

 

Has anyone else ever had a problem similar to this?

 

It's annoying because my insurance company is dealing with the claim and I'm not sure if I can actually do anything myself to speed things up (and get the claim thrown out).

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[saintly_1]

I will move your post to another forum where it will get a better response

[dx100uk]

you obviously need to contact the police/dvla as your number plate has been cloned.

 

dx

[thejackel1980]

you obviously need to contact the police/dvla as your number plate has been cloned.

 

dx

 

Thanks for your response.

 

The police have actually been in touch with us. We've explained everything to them and they said it may have been cloned but was unlikely.

 

The point is, how can I get this false claim scrapped before my insurance is due and I have to pay more because I have a claim pending?

 

I can prove I wasn't anywhere near the scene of the accident and this has been explained to their insurance company but they are still refusing to drop it!

[empowered]

Get your insurance company to appoint an assessor (engineer) to look at your car and prove it hasn't been involved in any collision. In a typical disputed liability case like this, it should be standard procedure.

[thejackel1980]

Thanks,

 

We've told our insurance company there's no damage to our car and they said fine and have taken our word for it (along with the evidence provided by us that can prove we can;t have been there)

 

However, because the other company won't drop the claim when we renew our insurance the underwriters (the company who our insurance company goes to - confussing, I know!) will see that a claim is pending and will bump the premium up.

 

So we're having to wait till they drop the claim which doesn't look likely.

 

Could we go to their insurance company and say drop the claim or when you find out we're not liable we'll sue you for the extra money we've had to pay for a 'claim pending'?

[INSURANCEGUY]

The other party will be required to supply full details of your vehicle under the Road Traffic Act, make, model, colour, reg.

 

Unless they are able to supply this, there is no claim to make as negligence cannot be proven against you.

[thejackel1980]

Thanks, that's a good point. I wish my insurance company would sort it out.

 

Their effing useless, it should have been sorted months ago.

 

I'd contact the insurance company of the other person myself but when I asked for the details of their insurance company, my insurance company wouldn't give me them?!

 

They said by contacting their insurance company directly I could say something that may insinuate guilt on my part??

[sailor sam]

Hi there,

 

I notice i your OP you say you 'received a letter from someone's car insurance company' and now you are saying you can't contact them because your insurers won't give you their details? Were not any details on the letter you got?

[Mossycat]

I can understand your frustration at the situation.

 

Presumably when you sent the letter from the other insurance company into your own insurers they asked you to fill out a claim form?

 

The problem here is that someone has intimated a claim against you, and because of that 'possible' liability your renewal premuim has been affected.

 

The insurers have to take this precaution because if (and I say IF) it turns out you were involved in the accident then they will possibly make a payment and your NCD will be affected. From my own experience I've seen it many times when a policyholder swears blind they were not involved and then later on 'remembers that actually they were'. I'm NOT saying that that is the case here, I'm just trying to explain it from the insurers point of view.

 

What you can do (IF you are 100% totally sure that you or your car was not involved) is to inform your insurers that you want the paperwork marked 'For Record Purposes Only' and you are NOT seeking any indemnity from them, explain it is either a cloned vehicle or the witness wrote the number down wrongly.

 

As InsuranceGuy has already stated, they will have to provide details of make and model etc to substantiate their claim, but that could take some time. By confirming to your own insurers that you don't want them to provide indemnity then they will close their file and allow your NCD for this year.

 

Be aware though that by doing this you will then have to deal with all future correspondence from the other party, which basically means that you write back and tell them it wasn't you or your car and they should investigate it more fully with the witness etc.

 

Mossy

[Unhappy Consumer]

My girlfriend has just received a false claim for injury from a postman who drove tired on her side of the road causing more damage to her car than his by clipping door mirrors. This pushed her door mirror through the side window causing broken glass to go all over her including her face and eyes. She did not put in an injury claim but he is claiming soft tissue damage when his glass window did not break. Nor did he sustain any injuries. What kind of person calls himself a postman trusted to turn up on our doorsteps most days does this. What would Royal Mail do about this if they knew he was making fraudulent claims and why are these solicitors who text these type of people allowed to make money from it. Not only this but both Insurance companies and the police are selling them this information. Something needs to be done to stop this.

[unclebulgaria67]

Apparently half of the PI claims made are fraudulent. People think they are entitled to the money and are even willing to lie in court. If there is no proof that the postman was not injured by the accident, they will succeed. Most Insurers will pay out up to £5k without too much of a struggle. They don't bother to challenge, as they don't want to incur costs.

 

This is why the average Car Insurance premium is fast approaching £1000.

 

I afraid people have very low moral standards these days. I once had an argument with some work colleagues about a ring one of them had found on the way to work. I suggested that they handed it in to the nearest Police station to where the ring was found. They (mostly women) found my suggestion to be totally mad. They said nobody would hand the ring in to Police these days. You can't look a gifthorse in the mouth, it was a lucky find to make some money from. I pointed out that the ring may have been owned by an elderly lady and had enormous sentimental value to her. They bascially said so what, it was her fault for losing it and she would not expect to get it back.

[honeybee13]

UB, I totally agree with you. I'm baffled by the modern mindset. And also the lack of extrapolation forwards to the net result on insurance premiums because we all share the cost of claims.

 

My best, HB

[Ganymede]

Apparently half of the PI claims made are fraudulent. People think they are entitled to the money and are even willing to lie in court. If there is no proof that the postman was not injured by the accident, they will succeed. Most Insurers will pay out up to £5k without too much of a struggle. They don't bother to challenge, as they don't want to incur costs.

 

This is why the average Car Insurance premium is fast approaching £1000.

 

 

I afraid people have very low moral standards these days. I once had an argument with some work colleagues about a ring one of them had found on the way to work. I suggested that they handed it in to the nearest Police station to where the ring was found. They (mostly women) found my suggestion to be totally mad. They said nobody would hand the ring in to Police these days. You can't look a gifthorse in the mouth, it was a lucky find to make some money from. I pointed out that the ring may have been owned by an elderly lady and had enormous sentimental value to her. They bascially said so what, it was her fault for losing it and she would not expect to get it back.

 

 

 

What a load of old balls. You can't just make up random stats and pass them off as fact.

 

Anecdotalevidence such as that winds me up no end, it's like the "I know Joe Blogss from the pub who got £4000 and he only had a stiff neck for a week!"

[unclebulgaria67]

Ever heard of the expression. exagerate to make a point !!!

 

Yes I could have come up with some stats from ABI and others, but could not be bothered.

 

Do your own research and you will find that the ABI have previously discussed a high level of fraud amongst PI claims.

 

Up to you Ganymede to add some facts rather than just rubbish the posts of others. Just to get you started.

 

LV=, an insurance company, calculated that the cost is as much as £100. A survey it has conducted among lawyers has indicated that 57 per cent had noticed an increase in the number of prospective clients faking their injuries in order to make a claim in the past ten years. Four in ten reported a jump in spurious cases since the recession began.

Asim Butt, a partner from Keoghs, a law firm specialising in the investigation and handling of suspected fraudulent personal injury claims, said: "This research supports the experience within our fraud unit that some types of insurance fraud are now reaching epidemic proportions.

 

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmtran/591/591vw09.htm

 

http://www.moneywise.co.uk/insurance/car-insurance/compensation-culture-driving-your-insurance-premiums

Edited October 2, 2011 by unclebulgaria67

[Mwynci]

On a tagent for the thread I know.....

No doubt (really no doubt) there's a lot of dodgy claims out there, but a lot of this is being used as an excuse for bad underwriting over the years leading to premium increases. The practice until recenty was for a company to get as much business as possible, offer low premiums, good or bad. What happened? the bad turned out to be bad and now insurers are actling surprised. They did the same with credit hire 10 years ago, ignored it and then vilified the hire companies for making money.

Now anyone who falls under the catagory of bad risk pays through the teeth, I feel genuine sympathy for the good guys stuck in this trap, this could have been avoided.

The FSA are soft as Sh**, this will happen again and again.

Interesting to see a quote from Keoghs, who have made a lot of money out of PI and are now ramping up their anti fraud image. The same goes for solcitors claming they see a jump in fraud, hmmm.

As for LV, LV are rent a quote, if they didn't say it first, Admiral would have been behind them.

Spin spin spin the wheel of PR.

[Ganymede]

I don't see anywhere that "half" of PI claims are fraudulent.

 

If you don't think that LV and Keoghs have a vested interest in peddling their "facts" then there is no hope.

[unclebulgaria67]

I don't see anywhere that "half" of PI claims are fraudulent.

 

If you don't think that LV and Keoghs have a vested interest in peddling their "facts" then there is no hope.

 

I seem to remember someone posting about the level of PI claims before, saying that a good percentage were probably fraudulent, had a reply from you to defend those involved in making PI claims. I maybe mistaken, apologies if this is the case.

 

Just wondering whether you derive any income from the PI claims industry or whether you just don't like unprovable stats being provided. If it is the latter, when the issue of fraudulent PI claim is raised, there is always a guestimate provided, because no one knows the true level of fraud, because very few prosecutions are ever brought.

[Ganymede]

Its more about my dislike of insurance companies and the way they twist things. Maybe I am also more pro claimant and on this side of the little guy.

 

I don't like the made up "stats", PR and spin insurance companies come out with. They blame everyone else but themselves and hope nobody notices - like bankers!

 

Anyone that thinks insurance premiums will come down once the legal reforms are in are deluded, the insurance companies will continue to screw us and make up another reason why premiums are rising.

 

End of rant.

 

No hard feelings?

[unclebulgaria67]

No hard feelings on my part.

 

But I do slightly side with the Insurers and the public with strong moral values, that a portion of the PI claims made are not worthy or even fraudulent.

 

I just hear of too many people that have either made PI claims themselves or been on the receiving end of others making claims against them. During the last 10 years or so PI claims have been growing at an alarming rate. I don't mind genuine claims being settled at a sensible appropriate amount, but I think that a good percentage are people just trying it on. It is up to the Insurers to have a more robust approach, so they can filter out those claims that cannot be justified.

[Ganymede]

I also don't agree with fraud. However, I also don't believe for one second that the insurance premiums will come down once the Jackson law reforms have been implemented.

 

Insurance companies have been lobbying for the reforms for their own selfish reasons and to make more money! The result in the reforms will be a genuine bar to acess for justice to the less well off people, who again ate going to get screwed.

 

Yes PI claims in car accidents have gone up but the insurance companies are scaremongering about the levels of fraud and amounts of compensation when in reality the compensation levels aren't that high.