Fictitious accident

foggytown

I haven't been involved in anything like this before and would appreciate some guidance.

Wife parks car in public car park at 08:00. Comes back at 15:00 and sees note inside sealed plastic bag stuck to windscreen.

Dear owner of (plate no.)

You have obviously collided with my car, causing a sizeable scrap (sic) and dent in my rear nearside wing. Please look at your nearside rear bumper where you will see the paint you have removed(?) from my car. I have taken pictures of the position of the cars and the damage you have caused.

Please call me on XXXXX XXXXXX and give me your insurance company details.

Thanks
Fred Bloggs
Owner of (plate no) Black Hyundai.

My wife says she knows nothing about any accident. So I call Fred and try to find out what's going on. He is adamant that wife's car parked into his as evidenced by the "position of the cars" and the "black paint" on her rear bumper which must have been transferred from his. He's getting more excitable by the minute. I try to reason with him.

1) I ask him what time he parked his car. He says he has his ticket which shows he parked at 09:00. So I tell him that my wife's ticket (which she has retained) shows she parked at 08:00. Score one to her.

2) He refuses to listen when I try to explain to him that the "black paint" he is on about isn't paint at all. The light green paint on my wife's bumper has flaked off (due to a minor scrape last winter) and what is actually showing is the black body of the composite bumper underneath the paint!

This bozo then demanded wife's insurance info. I'm frankly hesitant to give him that. Obviously no accident occurred and I just know that there's a good possibility that her insurer will ignore the facts and do the "economical" thing, thereby driving next year's premium up for no legitimate reason. My wife is also concerned that this guy is a nutter who will avenge himself on her little baby car.

vodooelephant

foggytown wrote: »

I haven't been involved in anything like this before and would appreciate some guidance.

Wife parks car in public car park at 08:00. Comes back at 15:00 and sees note inside sealed plastic bag stuck to windscreen.

Dear owner of (plate no.)

You have obviously collided with my car, causing a sizeable scrap (sic) and dent in my rear nearside wing. Please look at your nearside rear bumper where you will see the paint you have removed(?) from my car. I have taken pictures of the position of the cars and the damage you have caused.

Please call me on XXXXX XXXXXX and give me your insurance company details.

Thanks
Fred Bloggs
Owner of (plate no) Black Hyundai.

My wife says she knows nothing about any accident. So I call Fred and try to find out what's going on. He is adamant that wife's car parked into his as evidenced by the "position of the cars" and the "black paint" on her rear bumper which must have been transferred from his. He's getting more excitable by the minute. I try to reason with him.

1) I ask him what time he parked his car. He says he has his ticket which shows he parked at 09:00. So I tell him that my wife's ticket (which she has retained) shows she parked at 08:00. Score one to her.

2) He refuses to listen when I try to explain to him that the "black paint" he is on about isn't paint at all. The light green paint on my wife's bumper has flaked off (due to a minor scrape last winter) and what is actually showing is the black body of the composite bumper underneath the paint!

This bozo then demanded wife's insurance info. I'm frankly hesitant to give him that. Obviously no accident occurred and I just know that there's a good possibility that her insurer will ignore the facts and do the "economical" thing, thereby driving next year's premium up for no legitimate reason. My wife is also concerned that this guy is a nutter who will avenge himself on her little baby car.

This happened to me - some nutter threaten me in a car park and followed me home demanding my insurance details for a dent on his car....(wasnt me)

In the end i gave him me insurance tel (~I called them fisrt and asked what i should do) insurance company said they get things like this all the time....

Long story short - without me admiting to anything (i did nothing) or contacting me again - MY insurance paid out 476.00 to him..... bang goes my no claims etc..........

I WAS FURIOUS - Insurance company said they usally just settle cases like this....!!! be warned!!!

Quentin

All you can do is notify your insurer of the details (don't pass on your details to the third party if you don't want to), then leave it to the third party to do whatever he wants (you can't prevent him making a claim, but you can of course deny it!)

AdamHex

The best thing to do is notify your insurance company and explain the situation. Just to cover your back, I'd phone up your local police station and get them to put a log in, just incase the other driver tries anything silly like reporting that the vehicle has been involved in an 'accident' and you're refusing to provide insurance details.

foggytown

Quentin wrote: »

All you can do is notify your insurer of the details (don't pass on your details to the third party if you don't want to), then leave it to the third party to do whatever he wants (you can't prevent him making a claim, but you can of course deny it!)

I can deny it only if my insurer gives me the chance and listens to me!

slummymummyof3

You can also request that your insurance company sends an assessor out (just mention the word 'fraud') and looks at your car to see if the damage can be attributed to a collision with the nutters car. Had a similar thing a number of years ago and although our insurance company were going to settle 50/50 (we weren't claiming for our car) we managed to talk them round into coming and seeing our car as there was no possible way that the damage cited could have occured due to a collision with our car. Insurance company backed us in the end and nothing was paid to our nutter!

stephbond89

I would be inclined to phone the car p[ark operator and nearby shops or businesses and ask them if they would be ever so kind as to look at the CCTV of the area for that time...this will clear it up. If they dont have the CCTV, then I would possibly phone your insurance and tell them what happened and tell them you did not have an accident, they are lying and trying to make a fraudulent claim, I am pretty sure you have to admit to the accident and confirm it did actually happen before the insurance company will continue with it, also, you can refuse to gfive the insurance details if you know you did not have the accident 100% then do not give your details, the owner wont take it further if its a fraudulent claim, and if he thinks you really did crash into him, which you know you didnt, all he can do is continue to askf ro details, Id phone your insurance company for advice on their own policies though!