Ambulance chasers

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Evening gents.

Looking for a bit of advice really - the misses was involved in a car accident about a month ago, her fault, as she ran into the back of someone who hesitated at a roundabout.

Anyway, the guy in the other car got out and said he was fine, they exchanged details and he was off, my wife was left stranded on a dual carriageway as her car wouldn't move; but thankfully a breakdown van was behind her and helped shift her car.

Today, two letters arrived from a 'law firm', one on behalf of the blokes wife (not in the car at the time) and the other on behalf of the bloke who was driving... Add to this, both letters claim there were a total of 5 passengers in the car!

Now, unfortunately my wife forgot basic guidelines and didn't get any witness details from the breakdown guy, who she tells me saw the accident and the guy - there's a slim chance that we can call to ask if they have records of vans in the area, but she's not 100% on the company... so we could be calling quite a few.

Obviously she cannot prove that it was only the guy driving, but where does she stand, anyone had this before? It looks like the other party have fallen for the lucrative offer from an ambulance chaser here and are bulling up their story.

She's on the blower to her insurers now, so hopefully they can assist, if not, what do we face GD?

Thank you.

 

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Why would you care.

Its not gonna make a single bit of difference to you or ur missus. A as far as ur concerned a claim is a claim u less anyone died obv. Tell the insurance company the truth and let them deal with it

Your/her insurance will go up and thats it

As a home owner, and in no way versed in law - I care because I have no idea what to expect Would we be left up a creek without a paddle, facing legal bills... I don't know, hence posting here; as GD has some very clued up people, who may have insight.

Apologies you had to read my post, but thank you for the input, and hopefully you're (sorry 'ur') correct.

 

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Id writeback to them and say "5 you say...Well my dashcam only shows one person in the vehicle are you sure your writing to the correct person"

Not a bad shout - the letter is also addressed to Chippenham Cambridgeshire, we actually live in Chippenham Wiltshire.... Wonder if that invalidates the letter?

Edit: wonder if its worth posting both letters back marked 'not at this address', considering they have the wrong county?

 

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Thanks for all the replies too guys, amazed not to have had a suggestion to back up on their letter box yet....

 

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We'll leave it to the insurers, I found the guy and his business, but we won't go contacting him - or making up the dashcam story.

The wife is getting responses from the AA and RAC though; be great if they provided a witness statement...

 

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I'm with you EVH, people should care, it's dishonest, immoral and should be weeded out of society.

I heard of a story where a minibus braked suddenly at a particular bridge. The car behind obviously crashed in to it, but the driver of the car was surprised when 5 or more blokes ran down from the bridge, jumped in the minibus and instantly had whiplash.

Then there's the possible myth of the single decker bus that was involved in an accident in London. When the claims came in there was over 200 passengers with whiplash ...

I think this is what my wife was most distraught about - the fact that both she and the breakdown guy who helped, were all stood around with this guy chatting, he even said he was on his way to pick up the kids - yet along comes this bogus claim, and suddenly his wife and kids are in the car! So here's hoping that the breakdown company provide a statement confirming this...

 

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This happened to a colleague of mine, suddenly 5 people claiming after a prang involving him and another couple. His insurance company did exactly nothing to investigate a fraudulent claim, they just accepted that there were 5 people's word against his and paid out. The only thing they would have accepted from him was actual video evidence.

Christ that's really bad - but I guess the camera doesn't lie, so even if my wife were able to get a witness statement, I half expect this law firm will allege that the other occupants of the vehicle simply didn't get our of the car; hence why only the driver can be recalled in the statement.

Edit: I guess the reason insurers don't fight it, is because in the grand scheme, it lets them push up all the premiums, so they probably make more than they pay out.

 

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Sounds like a crash for cash scam. Suddenly stopping on a roundabout is a tactic they use, because they know people will be looking right and not straight ahead.

This sort of thing is why I never drive without my dash cam now. If you have video footage they don't have a leg to stand on. Thinking about one for the rear as well.

Possibly, but I think it was just a case my wife didn't pay attention - she even admitted that to me; she was rushing and late for work. It's just a bit **** that the guy can fabricate the fact his wife and three kids were in the car, when he told my wife that he was on his way to pick up the kids, and his wife wasn't event there (with the kids I guess). But I guess when it comes to law and whatnot, you have to be able to prove otherwise.

With any luck he and his wife get a token payout, and this shoddy law firm take a whopping cut of it; hoping that the T&Cs hide this fact

 

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Did she give a statement saying he said he was on the way to pick the kids up? They could probably follow that up or catch him out, especially if it was during school hours.

Her insurance company didn't seem in the slightest interested, and the letter regarding being sued, doesn't give any opportunity to put forward a defence; it simply tells her that she is being sued for damages to persons and property.

Reading the drivers claim of lower back and leg pain, his form then goes on to state that he didn't seek any medial help, take time off of work, or anything - odd as he's self employed in a physical role. It's such a blatant case of trying it on, and for the good ol' cases of whiplash/back pain/whatever we can claim for, but the audacity to make up stories that others were in the car as well!

It's bound to result in a payout, and thanks to folk here, it sounds as if we won't hear any more about it - so mind is at least at rest in that regard. It is still annoying to know that they will probably get compo for lying, and will be yet another case pushing all our insurance costs up that little bit more.

 

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Car insurance is an absolute joke. Someone wrote off my wifes car last year (totally the other drivers fault) and when my renewal came round my price went up by about 90 quid. Because she's a named driver on my car and was involved in a crash. She lost her car and I pay way more, all because of someone elses mistake. Like I said, a joke.

Completely agree! When I got wiped out on my motorcycle back in 2008; completely the car driver's fault, admitted liability and I had three witness statements backing it all up - my premium jumped up £150! I then had 5 years of added insult to injury, as I had to declare this non fault claim, and it would also push the price up.

 

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When our landline was still connected, I would get those calls all the time but I can't even drive, so they are simply fishing?

Who know fella, it wouldn't surprise me - actually following the above crash, my wife was contacted by the chasers the very same evening! One even wanted to take her national insurance number as part of the process! That sounds beyond dodgy to me.

 

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That's a total sham then, if they don't seek medical help injury claims should be thrown out straight away.

Agreed - sadly though, I'm sure the law firm can tie things up in many ways, and drag it out with the ever looming threat that it'll cost more in fees - so the insurer will no doubt settle to just get rid.

Ah well, there's not really anything we can do - let us hope that karma works its wonders at some point.

 

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this. tell the truth on your part and let the insurance deal with it, you can't do much if they lie unfortunately , don't stress yourself out about it

Think this is what we need to do - if someone wishes to be dishonest, then we can't change that - given a situation where there is money to be made; I expect we'd all give it some serious thought - especially as there's no obvious or immediate victim. They have just opted to play the system, and sadly unscrupulous companies like this law firm are allowed to carry on scaring people and getting compo cash for lies.

It's funny how people think, when I was going through a personal injury claim after my serious bike crash (10 days in hospital, 6 in ICU, broken body/mind and metal work) I felt like a right scum bag for claiming; yet I was perfectly justified in going for it - whereas these people aren't. So when all these loopholes and things get locked down even more, some poor bugger who does need to claim may end up getting nothing or a reduced amount.

 

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Oh O know the BS behind it. But how often are you in more than one accident? Surely now that you had one that's you off the hook for a while . Simply being in a crash doesn't magically make you x2 more likely to have another.

Sadly that is exactly how insurers see it - if anything, I bet all drivers would think "sod being in a crash again!" and would be extra vigilant, or stay at home

 

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Sorry if this has been asked but did you other half have a good quality dash cam? Such a thing would surely be able to pick up the driver getting out of the card and possible be able to tell how many people were in the back of the car as well.

Sadly she doesn't, the breakdown vehicle behind her may have - but it's a long shot. Hopefully nothing comes back to her in the proceedings, but we may invest in a camera in the future...

 

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You got any further with this op? What have the insurance said?

Not heard anything since she reported it - as others have suggested, it'll probably be dealt with without us hearing back.

Will report the fraud though, as that is out of order imo.

 

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Sorry for the thread resurrection...

Last my wife heard was that her insurers were going to uphold the guys claim, but would uphold his wife's; sad, as both were fraudulent claims.

Anyway, that was a month or so ago, then this morning the wife receives a letter from a completely new law firm; stating they have been instructed by her insurers to act on her behalf...

She's a tad worried to get something else out of the blue, and the letter is unclear as to what it's about, only alluding to the fact the costs will be covered by the 'CCFA'...

Anyone received anything like this before? She's going to contact the insurers in the week - hopefully it's the wife's insurers fighting the fraud....

 

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Right... Letter clarified.

Where my wife's insurers only honoured the claim from the driver, and not his wife, the driver's wife has initiated a CCJ against my wife!

It seems that greed for free money is pretty strong with them, so it's another chapter to this saga; and a harsh lesson for the wife - take bloody photos and proper details of witnesses...

Apparently this new law firm are acting for my wife, appointed by her insurers, and shouldn't cost.

I can't believe the lowlifes out there, it's such a shame as well, that loopholes and whatnot have been allowed to be exploited in claims over the years.

 

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That is why you always call the police, even for a minor accident. Get an official police report of vehicles and people involved.

Really? You'd do that? That seems like a huge waste of their time, and not something (unless things have changed), you're even advised to do...

 

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did you report them to the police for fraud?

Certainly did, we filed a report for insurance fraud with abi.org.uk and one with the Police, the latter came back to say they wouldn't be looking into it - the former... not sure; maybe they fed the report into a database and the misses' insurance saw it?

All we know presently, is that the appointed solicitors are conducting investigations into the driver's wife's whereabouts, so as to hopefully prove she wasn't there at the time - with that done, they will move to reject her claim (again) and have the CCJ against my wife cancelled. One thing that could bring both claims into disrepute, is to check with the school to see where the children were at the time; as both original claims state that the children were in the car - but the driver at the scene stated he was on the way to pick them up! I kind of hope that both claims do get called into question and ultimately cancelled, and that both are taken to court for fraud.

You would be surprised. In the absence of a dash cam and credible witnesses it's probably a sensible precaution against this very type of scam.

I can see the value in that regards, but I would still expect the Police will tell you to go swing - if they had to attend every single bump and bang; they would need hundreds more officers in the county. So the wife has now been kitted out with a dash cam, and I've mentioned it about a thousand times now - take details, take photos, take as much info as possible.