£54k insurance fraud foiled by black box

A fraudulent £54,000 insurance claim following a crash involving a car and a lorry has been found bogus thanks to a black box device fitted to the car.

Three passengers in the lorry claimed for personal injury damages after it was shunted at low speed by a Vauxhall Astra. However, the Astra was fitted with a telematics device that, when examined, revealed that due to the size and weight of the vehicles and the speed of the Astra, the claimed injuries were implausible.

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A number of insurance companies are now offering discounts if drivers fit a black box to their cars. It helps provide evidence in the case of collisions, as well as allowing firms assess your day-to-day driving.

The dispute following the collision between the flat-bed lorry and Vauxhall Astra was heard in Macclesfield County Court, where it was dismissed.

Claims for injuries such as whiplash have soared in the last decade, with 380 fraudulent claims on average made to insurance companies every day. They cost the motor industry over £1 billion each year.

Motor fraud specialists the Asset Protection Unit (APU) help out in cases like this one, where motorists are believed to be fraudulently claiming.

Director of investigative services at APU, Neil Thomas:

“Fraudulent personal injury claims add millions to the cost of the nation’s insurance premiums. Many fraudsters prey upon vulnerable motorists in premeditated attempts to fleece them and their insurance firm out of thousands of pounds but others are simply opportunistic.

“Motorists must be careful of opportunists who apparently escalate the severity of an incident in an attempt to profit from the situation.”

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By motoringresearch.com