Fraudulent whiplash claim

BigGingerJake

Hello everyone.

Could I ask for some advice please.

I've been driving 13 years so far, and never been in any form of accident, nor had any speeding tickets or fines.

Two months ago, I was emerging from a road.

Directly opposite the road I was emerging from, there is a bus stop, which at the time had a double-decker bus in it.

I'm indicating to turn right, and join traffic on the opposite side where the bus is.

There is no on-coming traffic, it's completely clear, so the traffic I'm trying to join is over-taking the double-decker bus on the wrong side of the road.

I sit patiently waiting, until a kind driver slows to a stop, and waves me out.

I start getting into first gear (manual), and look back to the direction I'm turning before I've even crossed the bite-point, so doing about 1 mph, and immediately have to break, as the car which went past just before this one has turned deeply across the front of my car without indicating.

This guy has stopped his car mid-turn in front of mine, despite the road that he is turning into being clear. There is a very minor contact between the vehicles. I think I would struggle to call the contact even as much as a nudge.

We've stopped in the road where we've made contact. I'm baffled, thinking, 'this guy definitely didn't indicate, he's just swung in front of my car and stopped for no reason'.

The first thing I do is look at both his indicators, back and front; neither are on, which of course they should be, as he is about 60% of the way through a 90º right turn.

I role down the window, and say "why aren't your indicators on? Was that on purpose?", to which he replies "they are on...". We gesture each other to drive into the side road, which we do.

We pull up next to each other, take pictures, and exchange details. The damage to my vehicle is only some paint scratched off of the bumper, which you can also see some of on his car where the vehicles made contact.

There is a small dent on his vehicle just left of where the scratched off paint is, and I don't believe for a second that this was caused by the contact of our vehicles.

When this guy gets out of his vehicle, before he's even looked at the damage, he says - you've put a dent in my vehicle, then he walks to the side of the car to point out the dent he hasn't seen yet. At this point I'm certain he's pulling a fast one.

He asks me several times (maybe 4 times) to follow him to a garage and pay for the repairs, to which I refuse, saying this will need to go through insurance.

I rang my insurer letting them know that he would likely make a claim as our vehicles touched and same paintwork was lost.

Today I receive a letter from a solicitor claiming for neck and back pain, and vehicle damage. I guarantee you that same 'accident' occurring with any car in that same manner, were it to have my 94 year old grandmother in as a passenger, she wouldn't so much as flinch.

Obviously as you've guessed by now, the gent was walking around absolutely fine without discomfort for the 15 minutes we stood at our vehicles as he tried to convince me to pay for repairs, and then drove off.

Further to this, his son rang me the next evening, again asking if I would simply pay for damages to his vehicles, and not involve insurance, to which I declined.

This is what is on his claim as received:

Has the claimant had to take time off work as a result of the injury?
Yes

If the claimant still off work?
Yes
>>> It has been 59 days between now and the event. Does this mean the guy is trying to claim back money for this too? Or just using it to dodge tax? (he is a self-employed taxi driver)

Has the claimant sought any medical attention?
No

Did the claimant attend hospital as a result of the accident?
No

I've heard many horror stories from friends, but I've never encountered scum this low until now.

Can anyone advise on what I should do from here, and what my chances are of surviving this fraudulent claim?

Many Thanks
Jake

robber2

They should be claiming off your insurance not you. Refuse to discuss the incident with the other driver and his family and re-direct them to the insurers claims department.

It maybe worth telling your insurance company of your suspicions but other than that I would keep out of it completely.

Rob

Carrot007

100% keep it with the insurers.

My father had a claim like this.

After refering to the insurers, they just kept sending him claims and he forwareded them to the insurerers.

They were going to pay but found out they had a history of such claims.

The insurance company are better placed to do this!

csgohan4

defer to your insurance, your going to be taken for a ride otherwise

swingaloo

Exactly the same thing happened to me a few years ago. I was at a back street crossroad and going straight across. Due to parking on both sides of the street I wanted to go across I could see nothing without inching out. As I inched out I saw a car coming from the left so stopped. The car driver had plenty of room to carry on past me but deliberately clipped the front of my bumper. I had seen her actually turn her steering wheel to the right as she was level with me.

We both got out and looked at the damage which was just a small on both front bumpers which would probably come out with Tcut.

If her car had been for sale at the side of the road it would have had a £300 price tag on it. She was quite nice at the time and we exchanged numbers. We actually ended up laughing about it being 2 women drivers and telling our husbands.

A week later I got a demand from her-

Both her and her aunt who had been in the car had needed to go to hospital, she had whiplash, her aunt had a damaged elbow. She wanted something for her pain and suffering. She wanted her car wing and bonnet hand painting as it was an uncommon colour and it was going to cost over £700.


I told her that if we had bumped our trolleys in Tesco she would have sustained more injury and as for her car I told her that I was happy to pay for the paintwork to be touched up but £700 was more than her car was worth.

Passed it all to the insurance and told them that she was trying it on and that I knew she had deliberately clipped my car but as she was on the street that I was trying to cross she had right of way and unless I had a witness to say I was stopped then she would win.

csgohan4

Always take visual damage photos as well getting a dash cam to protect yourself. You never know when you may need it.

McKneff

On the other hand a friend of mine had s monor shunt as you describe, symptons did nt manifest till duri g the night and she was in agony, on and off the sick for a 12 month and stii gets niggles. So may not be fraudulent .

Aretnap

Pass the correspondence on to your insurance company unanswered. You pay then to hard earned money precisely so to when things like this happen it's their problem not yours.

It's quite normal for soft tissue injuries not to be fully apparent for a good few hours after an accident so the fact that he wasn't obviously hurt a the to do in itself prove anything. It's the people who jump out o of cars clutching their necks and saying how sure they are who are more obviously trying it on.

BigGingerJake

Thank you for all the replies!

I have spoken to my insurance and they received an exact copy of the letter I did, so they have gone to my insurers directly.

RE:

Aretnap wrote: »

It's quite normal for soft tissue injuries not to be fully apparent for a good few hours after an accident so the fact that he wasn't obviously hurt a the to do in itself prove anything. It's the people who jump out o of cars clutching their necks and saying how sure they are who are more obviously trying it on.

There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that the individual was injured in any way, shape, or form. His car didn't even so much as wobble. If he ends up getting a pay out I will be disgusted.

If you were in a car accident that forced you to take 2 months off of work, unpaid, as this guy is claiming, don't you think you might have visited a doctor or a hospital, at least once in that period? Because from this form it reads that he hasn't...

Tomorrow I will be approaching some of the local shops in the area to try and obtain CCTV footage if there is any, to prove just exactly how light it was. More of a touch than a knock.. Feeling :mad:

I have a new question. If I can prove that this guy is trying to scam me with footage, is there any way I can facilitate justice? People like this should not be allowed on our roads.

foxtrotoscar_2

Shop CCTV footage two months on.....good luck with finding that!

FutureGirl

The people filling out the form is not the injured person, but someone at the solicitors on the other end of the phone, who is not qualified in law or anything like that.

From my experience, a lot of them put 'no' to GP, hospital etc even when they have been.

Your insurers will take care of it and will dispute anything they can. Did you claim for any damage to your vehicle? You say you were doing 1mph, but what about the other driver?

Proving whiplash is fraudulent is difficult, especially if they have a medical report stating they are injured.