Many of you may have been as shocked, as I was, to read the story about Mohammed Patel, the guy who has been staging accidents on behalf of vehicle owners so that they may make bogus claims from insurers – all for the great price of £500 a time!
In the last 3 years he has caused 93 crashes in the Greater Manchester area and each claim averaged at approximately £17,000.00.
Patel was making enough money for himself and his unemployed girlfriend to live a fairly luxurious standard of living. The courts heard that their home was filled with expensive furniture and they had holidayed in France and Barcelona recently.
Investigations were started after Patel was witnessed causing 2 accidents on the same day and office workers to a nearby roundabout which was one of Patel’s favorite spots became suspicious when they witnessed many low speed accidents with the same driver appearing to be the ‘victim’.
The owner’s of the vehicles that Patel was crashing were making claims against innocent parties for damages including vehicle repairs/loss and personal injury. The costs to the insurers were very high in some circumstances.
If you have ever had a claim made against your insurance policy then you will have experienced the increase in your premium. Well thanks to Patel’s staged ‘accident’s, innocent motorist were seeing extreme increases in their insurance premiums due to fraudulent claims being made against their policies.
That is the important point to note; Patel’s actions amounted to a criminal offence and the claims made by the vehicle owner’s were fraudulent.
Mohammed Patel has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison due to his actions and also banned from driving for three and a half years.
Not only were his actions a criminal offence but he was putting the lives of other motorists at risks. He did not have a care for any other road users and this should always be taken in to consideration when driving a motor vehicle.
