Insurance says I was in a crash... but wasnt?!

jorgensen

yeah they said it happened on a few roads away from me and they have a witness. no pictures no... i dont know what to do. they didnt care for my justification of why id be at home nor did they say what may or may not happen to my NCD. do i just have to take this hit?

Strider590

Be sure to get pictures of your car, just in case they come round and damage it.

Could have had an accident, been too scatterbrained to get any details, gone home, their partners gone nuts, gone back to wait for a similar car at that location, seen you, followed you home and now this.

steve-L

Strider590 wrote: »

Be sure to get pictures of your car, just in case they come round and damage it.

Could have had an accident, been too scatterbrained to get any details, gone home, their partners gone nuts, gone back to wait for a similar car at that location, seen you, followed you home and now this.

They might even believe it must have been your car ???

Or lots of other scenarios.... they might have been drinking, damaged the car and have some paint of a certain color next day decided to create a story .... and yours was the first car they saw with the same color.... they might have kids borrowed their car... etc.

antrobus

jorgensen wrote: »

...
The guy reported me by registration number and description and claimed I had no ID at the time hence not having my name...

And why would your lack of ID have prevented you from simply telling them what your name was?

I'd say that you are the unfortunate target of one of these crash for cash scams. You registration has simply been selected to make the scam look more believable. But I'm not sure what else you can do other than deny liability, point out that it is a scam, and insist that the insurers report it to the IFB.

dacouch

Quinny wrote: »

According to UK law, your innocent until proven guilty here.

The onus therefore is on them to prove you did it, not for you to fess up to something you didn't do.

Stick to your guns.

Edit: If you have legal protection, give them a call and tell them what's happening and ask them to intervene.

It doesn't quite work like that with Insurers, they have the right to settle a claim how they feel is right which is generally the most economcial way.

If the OP cannot give some kind of proof, they may well settle the other persons claim.

OP I recommend you email the claims handler for your Insurer a photograph of yourself along with a description eg 5 foot 10, stocky build with blonde hair along with a picture and description for any other named drivers on your policy. This may help as the description given by the driver may be for someone completely different.

If you have any other evidence eg you were at work at the time etc tell them about this.

Write a polite and concise letter explaining you were not involved in the accident and will do anything you can to help.

Recommend they send an engineer to inspect your car for accident damage / repaired accident damage.

If they still don't play ball, you could employ your own engineer which will cost circa £150 to check your car and confirm there's no repaired accident damage.

spacey2012

Write to the insurance by recorded delivery and state this is a fraudulent claim and you will swear an affidavit to that effect should the need arrive.
You don't need witnesses as to where you were they need them to prove you were involved. Do not e.mail Write

Tilt

I had a similar thing happen to me once. I paid my dealer (where I had purchased the car) to carry out a inspection of my car to prove it was in it's original factory finished condition. In my case (Fiat), all the body panels were traced back to the original factory finished build thus proving that they had been not been replaced. Also, they were able to confirm that no repairs had been carried out.

So if the OP has owned his car from new and/or he knows for a fact that it has had no previous repairs done, this is what I suggest he does.

maninthestreet

OP - have you been given the description of the person driving your car at the time of alleged accident, as given by the other driver making the claim?

sarahg1969

Similar happened to my husband and there were even claims from his own passengers! His car was advertised in autotrader at the time. It was clearly a scam when we dug a little deeper. This sounds more like mistaken identity though.

nuttyp

I stopped to help a lady who had fallen off her bike. She reported me to the police for knocking her off, claimed her bike had been run over and she had a broken arm!!!! She claimed for a carer for a few weeks too, my then insurance company n. union paid out. But then a few years later rang to say that they had tried to repeat the same sinario against another person, exactly the same place etc.... but not a broken arm but a back injury and whiplash.

Last i heard they were in the process of investiagteing a scam, but did i get an appology for not believing me - NO.