EVU XXVII 2018 – 26 The UK’s biggest Insurance Fraud Investigation

The UK’s biggest Insurance Fraud Investigation
Chris Goddard BSc CEng MIET
Gwent Police

Abstract

This paper shows how an insurance fraud operation was uncovered and subsequently resulted in the largest insurance fraud investigation ever to be undertaken in the UK. The investigation lasted 6½ years and resulted in 181 convictions to 167 defendants, resulting in over 117 years of sentences and 13,000 hours of community service. This paper will demonstrate the steps taken to prove that 50
separate road tra#c collisions involving 101 vehicles did not actually happen.
Each collision had a basic set of circumstances and a vague location provided by those making the claim. An insurance assessor had inspected each car and taken some basic details and photographs for valuation purposes. The assessor for one vehicle would not be involved with the inspection of the other vehicle. The collision investigation required a detailed assessment of the available photographs linked to the location and circumstances. Scaled CAD drawings of the vehicles were obtained to compare the position of damage from one vehicle to another. This was conducted by a single collision investigator who had an understanding of the whole incident. Inspection of the clues in the photographs showed the cars were being partially dismantled before being crashed and repaired with the removed parts.
The insurance industry is being advised to change the brief to their assessors and where any suspicious criteria exist, to instruct a collision investigator to look at the case and all the vehicles involved.

La lettura di questo articolo è riservata ai soli Soci EVU Italia.

Autore	Chris Goddard BSc CEng MIET Gwent Police
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