Fraudulant car insurance claim

bonniemac1103

A couple of month ago a 'bumped' into the back of a car. We were coming to a stop when the car stopped suddenly and i bumped them. to cut a long story short these people claimed on my insurance for whiplash for all 5 occupants of the car, this included 3 chidren, using a no win no fee solicitor. there wasnt barely a mark on either car. an engineer working for the insuarnce company examined my car, said that there was a slight scuff mark where i touched the,, but thats it, and stated this amount of damaged showed that they couldnt have whiplash. i have since spoken to my insurance who are saying that they are still going to probably pay out as a cost saving exercise, around £1500-£2000 per person! they say that if they did not pay the claim and it was taken to court then they could pay out double. I just dont understand how these people can get away wit it and the insurance company just roll over and pay them thousands of pounds, and they wonder why so many people do this kind of thing for a living. is there anyone i can contact to complain??? i just think it is very unjust.

Quentin

Why take the word of the engineer - unless he is also a medic, and has examined the patients and taken their histories, he is in no position to pass judgement like this!

Your insurers wouldn't be paying unless they felt they had to, which is what they have advised you.

If you want to complain officially, follow the unsurers complaints procedure which will be set out in the policy.

whood

I really feel for you as this happened to me a few years ago and was the same scenario, i would advise anyone who has an accident to call the police at the time of incident as what better statement than the police can you get!!! I know its probably waisting police time but imagine the thousands it saves , insurance companies always keel over, im afraid if thats what your insurance company has stated it is going to do then theres not much else im afraid.

Quentin

Unless you suspect a crime has been comitted, it's hard to get the police to come to a rear end shunt like this, and if they did, the whiplash wouldn't be expected to be apparent anyway!

bonniemac1103

If i had hit them with any force then it would have shown on my car, they do dent very easily. The engineer was able to see from the scuff mark on my car that i had hit them with little force, it doesnt take a medic to see i barely touched them.
The insurance companies are to blame for these type of people, and i think it is wrong, and it should be stopped, and to top it off, it seems the claimaints are actually not insured themselves, need i say more!

jackarmy

If you have an accident in Germany, the police automatically deal with the incident.

No ifs or buts

bonniemac1103

I agree, i think if we start talking about the police then we would need a whole new thread or even forum....But it would have certainly helped in this situation. however i have never bumped anyone before and no one has never bumped me, and i was gullible to think that because i had barely touched them therefore not making any damage to the car, i did not realise they would then claim for injury...silly me!

Quentin

bonniemac1103 wrote: »

The insurance companies are to blame for these type of people, and i think it is wrong, and it should be stopped, and to top it off, it seems the claimaints are actually not insured themselves, need i say more!

Don't know what you mean by "these type of people"? (And do you mean the ambulance chaser solicitors or the injured parties?)

In this case there seems someone else (not the insurance company) clearly to blame for costing the insurers (and therefore all their other policyholders) all this money!

rudekid48

Of course if you had been the correct braking distance from them and not rear ended them in the first place, then this scenario wouldn't occur would it?

But hey, what do facts matter.

lisyloo

Don't know what you mean by "these type of people"?

I have heard of cases where people deliberately pull in front, slam on the brakes and then have bent doctors write reports on injuries.

One case where it's difficult to maintain the correct braking distance is where people suddenyl pull in front. However rear-ending is usually assumed to be the driver's behind fault and therefore they have the benefit of the doubt on their side.

However I have my doubts as to whether anyone would deliberately pull this stunt with their own children as it's clearly risky.

The only this you can do is write to complain stating that you suspect fraud.

bonniemac1103

Yes of course if i had been the correct distance away, but the people in front were dithering about so much and not moving with the flow of trafiic, that i did infact end up being up their *rse, which i kick myself about ever since, and now remain a good mile away. However that doesnt take away from the fact that these opportunists are now using a cr*p system to earn a quick buck out of something very minor indeed. It is the insurance people i blame for allowing 'these type of people' to get away with such claims...and i do not agree with the insurance company paying them out.

I say 'these people' as it is a fact that certain areas of certain cities are rife with this kind of thing.