"Crash for cash" - using a bus!

[neilmc]

Staged accidents for insurance claims aren't unknown in Manchester but this one used a Finglands double decker, although the bus driver wasn't in on it:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...s/crooked-bus-inspector-behind-400000-8092920

Crooked bus inspector behind £400,000 'crash for cash' scam on No 42 bus in Rusholme

A crooked bus inspector staged a £400,000 ‘crash for cash’ between the No 42 and a Mercedes on one of Manchester’s busiest roads.


More than 30 passengers were put at risk when the double decker slammed into the back of a luxury saloon which suddenly braked hard at Wilmslow Road, Rusholme.


Insurers put aside £400,000 in the aftermath of the bogus accident, expecting a deluge of personal injury claims.


The investigation revealed Finglands' night duty inspector, Asan Akram, had used inside knowledge to ensure a collision between the bus and the Mercedes, which was driven by his pal Tariq Iqbal and carrying three passengers.


Akram, of Ringwood Avenue, Longsight, has now been jailed for 16 months....

 

[ECML180]

It's concerning but this sort of thing is more common. Commercial vehicles are prefered as targets due to the fact that they are more likely to have insurance.

One piece of advise to any bus driver out there is to know that when a car often stops & starts but keeps you directly behind him is that he is up to no good. Also be aware of passenger numbers being unusually high as dodgy passengers will often have been tipped off which bus will be crashing in advance.

 

[muz379]

It's concerning but this sort of thing is more common. Commercial vehicles are prefered as targets due to the fact that they are more likely to have insurance.

This coupled with the fact that I think there is a perception out there that commercial vehicle insurance is more likely to pay out no questions asked .

Although in this case because the dodgy bus inspector didn't fill in a detailed enough report that perception backfired .

Another thing to bear in mind is that if a vehicle in front of you is going unusually slow given a clear road ahead hang back . Even if they aren't up to no good they might just not know where they are going and stop suddenly .

 

[trentside]

There was a similar incident in Sheffield, where the bus driver was involved.

Two men have been jailed for orchestrating a series of "crash-for-cash scams", including one involving a bus with up to 40 passengers on board.

Mohammed Gulzar and Shoaib Nawaz, from Sheffield, attempted to net £500,000 from a series of fraudulent insurance claims via their firm City Claims 4 U.

One staged accident involved a 12-tonne bus hitting a car in Burngreave, Sheffield.

Gulzar, 31, and Nawaz, 25, were jailed at Sheffield Crown Court.

Gulzar and Nawaz, who were found guilty of fraud after a trial last year, were jailed for four-and-a-half years and three-and-a-half years respectively.

Nine other people were also sentenced for their part in the fraud.

Bus driver Adam Herbert, 25, from Sheffield, was jailed for 20 months, after admitting his involvement.

The court heard how the bus crash, in June 2011, was just "the most extreme example" of a series of fake collisions masterminded by Gulzar and Nawaz.

Full Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-25886347

 

[Busaholic]

Staged accidents for insurance claims aren't unknown in Manchester but this one used a Finglands double decker, although the bus driver wasn't in on it:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...s/crooked-bus-inspector-behind-400000-8092920

So what were Finglands doing employing as an inspector someone with previous for theft and drugdealing?

As for the passengers' insurance claims, just because there was no pay-out don't assume they were all bogus or exaggerated. My father-in-law, then aged 85, was catapaulted out of his seat on a single-deck PrestonBus vehicle and had his hip broken when it had to brake sharply to avoid a white van coming out of a turning in front of it. Up to then he had been very fit and active and the insurance company procrastinated in the hope he would die before any claim might have to be settled. In the end, with the help of my wife, he got the maximum that could be expected, but only about three years later, after he'd had to have a stairlift put into his house,etc, all at his own expense. The irony, though lost on him, was he'd spent his working life with PrestonBus's great rivals Ribble Motors.

 

[muz379]

So what were Finglands doing employing as an inspector someone with previous for theft and drugdealing?

As for the passengers' insurance claims, just because there was no pay-out don't assume they were all bogus or exaggerated. My father-in-law, then aged 85, was catapaulted out of his seat on a single-deck PrestonBus vehicle and had his hip broken when it had to brake sharply to avoid a white van coming out of a turning in front of it. Up to then he had been very fit and active and the insurance company procrastinated in the hope he would die before any claim might have to be settled. In the end, with the help of my wife, he got the maximum that could be expected, but only about three years later, after he'd had to have a stairlift put into his house,etc, all at his own expense. The irony, though lost on him, was he'd spent his working life with PrestonBus's great rivals Ribble Motors.

I believe a story I read in the local press suggests that he lied on an application form in order to get the job . So perhaps they did not know he had those convictions .