Fraudelent Personal Injury Claim, Diamond Ins

keeno65

First of all my apologies for this being a long post, and if I ramble a bit, but it takes a bit of explaining.

Last August my Daughter was in a very minor accident with another car, it was her fault and she admitted it straight away.
She had a passenger with her (who works for an insurance company incidentally), and the other car was driven by a girl and her baby was asleep in the back.
It was my daughters second year with insurance.
The damage on the other car was a very small mark. There was no damage on my daughters car. The baby hadnt even woken up. She phoned me asking what to do as it was her first time, unfortunately for her, not me, I have never made a claim so wasn't 100% sure myself. I suggested if the damage was minor to agree with the girl to pay her and not go through insurance, the other girl agreed. My daughter called her insurance company (Diamond) and told them what had happened and asked for advice, she said she was told that if she sorted it herself then there would be no repurcussions as far as no claims discount go as there would be no claim. The girl (who's father owns a repair garage) told her how much it would cost and my daughter agreed to pay her, there was a few phone calls also from her father talking about the repair as if it had been done somewhere else, no mention he owned a garage, my daughter knows he does because the passenger in my daughters car knew the girl. My Daughter said she would pay her once she had seen the receipt from the garage, then never heard anything for a while, (the girl had also sent her a picture of the damage) then a while later she got a text saying "Hi its ...is it ok if I pick money up coz the guy has fixed the car but wont give it me back until i have paid him" my daughter said she wanted to see repair and car first. That was the last she ever heard from her.
Roll on 6 months when her renewal is due and last year it cost her 1200 with 1 yr ncd, this year it was going to be 1800 with 0 ncd. I called diamond on her behalf and asked why she didnt have 2 yrs ncb ? I then found out that a claim had been made and they had paid out £800 for the damage, my daughter had no contact from diamond at all asking her side of events. They said they had tried to call her and left messages, my daughter said she never got any messages. They then proceeded to tell me that there was also a personal injury claim going through for £7000 !!
I said you have to be joking she only just touched her, it didnt even wake the baby!! The claims girl said she had photographs of the damaged car and the damage was bad enough to support the claim. They had also sent out an engineer to look at the other car. I said anybody could have made the damage worse after the event, why has nobody asked my daughters side of the story or been to inspect her car? She seemed surprised that nobody had been to see her car and then arranged for an engineer to go and see it. I also told her about the texts and pictures she had received, and she said they were not submissable as evidence.
The "engineer" came last week, didnt open any doors, didnt open the bonnet, never looked underneath and said there is a scratch on the headlight and damaged wheeltrims..he was there less than 10 minutes.
Today she got a call and an email saying

"We write in relation to the above claim. We have reviewed both engineer reports and have ascertained there was sufficient damage sustained to both vehicles to warrant a whiplash injury.
As we have established you were the negligent party in relation to the accident we shall deal with all aspects of the claim accordingly, including the personal injury claim. We will require medical evidence to be provided.
We require no further correspondence and will send written confirmation when the claim has been closed"

So my question is , what can we do about this, it is very obviously a fraudulent claim and god knows what the so called engineer put in his report, and what is more annoying is that Diamond don't seem to be bothered at all, it really makes me very suspicious about what backhanders may go on the insurance claims world.
Unfortunately it is my Daughter who really suffers, she now has to state on her app forms for new quotes that she has had a claim against her and also has to state that there is a personal injury claim as well. As well as losing 2 years no claims discount.

I want to take this further, I know it won't help my daughter but it just hacks me off that it is that easy to make a claim with so little checking from the insurance companies, no wonder premiums are inreasing they way they are. I want the claimant reported for fraud.

Any suggestions of who I can approach?

InsideInsurance

keeno65 wrote: »

So my question is , what can we do about this, it is very obviously a fraudulent claim and god knows what the so called engineer put in his report, and what is more annoying is that Diamond don't seem to be bothered at all, it really makes me very suspicious about what backhanders may go on the insurance claims world.

Unfortunately it is my Daughter who really suffers, she now has to state on her app forms for new quotes that she has had a claim against her and also has to state that there is a personal injury claim as well. As well as losing 2 years no claims discount.

I want to take this further, I know it won't help my daughter but it just hacks me off that it is that easy to make a claim with so little checking from the insurance companies, no wonder premiums are inreasing they way they are. I want the claimant reported for fraud.

Any suggestions of who I can approach?

Insurers are cold commercial organisations and are rarely bothered about the "principle" of the matter. Your daughter admits to be at fault for an accident and the engineers believe the damage is sufficient to both have caused that level of repair and potentially the injury.

I am guessing you are saying it was a low velocity impact rather than just a glancing blow? You can try and register a complaint about the fact they arent defending the case as a LVI but in many cases it simply isnt worth the time and effort as it inflates costs and you still end up settling most of them.

As to your daughter, the PI will make almost no difference at all. It is all one incident and most insurers do not factor in either if PI was involved or not and neither the claim value for personal lines

stormbreaker

A quick google and I found this

http://www.insurancefraudbureau.org/

I don't know if they area private organisation out to make money but might be worth a look!

hugoshavez

stormbreaker wrote: »

A quick google and I found this

http://www.insurancefraudbureau.org/

I don't know if they area private organisation out to make money but might be worth a look!

They're not, and a tip to them may find its way back to someone at your insurer more willing to take a closer look.

keeno65

Well I thought this would have got a bit more discussion, looks like we just have to accept that everybody out there is going to milk PI claims.
Funny actually, yesterday the girl that was the passenger in my daughters car reckons she has started to develop post traumatic stress disorder from the accident, flashbacks, coming out in cold sweats etc and she has started to get pains in her neck and back.
She keeps thinking how badly the baby could have been injured if it hadn't have been in a car seat. She has decided to make a claim against my daughter.
Fortunately the claim won't make any difference to my daughter now, she has lost her ncd anyway.

Parking_Trouble

Easy money for the "victim", their solicitor and their medical partners in grime. It is a dirty business but where there's muck there's brass.

Diamond don't give a monkeys. Surprised they got someone to look at your daughters car. They take the line of least resistance,. Easier to pay up and pass the cost to customers.

iwblue

I have a similar situation. I had a low impact collision, not my fault. Months after the claims were going through the other party suddenly comes up with a witness and a PI claim has been put in. I want to take it to court, however my insurance company don;t seem keen. I wanted to know what other options were available too.

Parking_Trouble

"Victims" have nothing to lose because the ambulance chasers know the insurer will pay up without a fight.

If the "victims" had to make their claim under oath in front of a judge I wonder how many would drop their claim? Most of them I suspect.

InsideInsurance

iwblue wrote: »

I want to take it to court, however my insurance company don;t seem keen. I wanted to know what other options were available too.

Your insurers have the authority to settle the matter how they see fit and therefore you need to come to an agreement with them.

You could take the matter to court yourself, including your insurers losses but your insurers would probably want you to confirm that you would indemnify them against the extra costs should you lose the case. Depending on your financial circumstances and ability to pay ~£10,000 they may or may not be willing to do this.

iwblue

I've took my incident further with my Insurance company and made an official complaint highlighting where I believe they have over looked the facts. They are now reviewing my case and I have every intention of pushing it as far as possible. I don't intend to let them off lightly with this and am using their complaints process to the full extent. Don't let them fob you off.

chanz4

keeno65 wrote: »

Well I thought this would have got a bit more discussion, looks like we just have to accept that everybody out there is going to milk PI claims.
Funny actually, yesterday the girl that was the passenger in my daughters car reckons she has started to develop post traumatic stress disorder from the accident, flashbacks, coming out in cold sweats etc and she has started to get pains in her neck and back.
She keeps thinking how badly the baby could have been injured if it hadn't have been in a car seat. She has decided to make a claim against my daughter.
Fortunately the claim won't make any difference to my daughter now, she has lost her ncd anyway.

amazing, has she offered to split it by any chance