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180,000 'lied over motor insurance'

NEARLY 3,500 cases of motorists lying on their applications for insurance or deliberately leaving relevant information off them are being uncovered by insurers each week, new figures reveal. Some 180,675 attempts to make fraudulent applications for motor insurance as people tried to get cheaper cover than they were entitled to were detected last year, equating to around 3,475 incidents a week, according to data released by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). These claims were exposed as lies by the insurer either at the point when the person applied for a policy, or after they had obtained cover and had gone on to make a claim.

Motorway pile-up 'like pinball'

DRIVERS involved in a fatal pile-up on a motorway entered a "wall of blackness" before suffering numerous impacts as if they were "a pinball machine", a jury heard. Seven people died and 51 were injured after 34 cars collided when a section of the M5 in Somerset was suddenly "engulfed in thick smog". Anthony and Pamela Adams, Maggie and Michael Barton, Malcolm Beacham, Terry Brice and Kye Thomas died in the incident, on November 4 2011.

Ford justifies its Vignale sub-brand (video)

The Ford Mondeo Vignale (pictured). Ford’s first Vignale-badged car Earlier this month, as the Frankfurt Motor Show approached, Ford revealed that it’s going back to a sales tactic they created in the 1970s – badge-engineering their cars with a coachbuilders name to create an upmarket sub-brand. Last time Ford played this game we had almost 30 years for the Ford Ghia, a range of Ford’s mainstream models that had all the toys as standard to try and create an appealing high-end option for buyers.