Car Accident - False Witness Statement

Mr_Bear_2

yes there are staged accidents and there are undoubtedly dishonest people which is a shame as it means the genuine people are suspected as well!!

Sunday_Morning

Trouble is these days that companies will do what's cost effective, not what is right. As a result they end up settling out of court to jokers like the OD in your case, in which instance his claim is not documented as it should, which leaves him free to carry out exactly the same thing against another company.

He gets away with it, but you won't hear the insurers bleating about it. After all, they saved themselves a packet in legal expenses while what they lose in compensation they can claw back through additional premiums on your next cover.

Granted, you may not want them covering you next time, but wherever you go you'll meet the same attitude and your current company will probably pick up the trade of people leaving your future company for exactly the same thing.

I feel your pain, but haven't got a clue what you can do about it without the risk of incuring the risk of a lot of expenditure on your part :-(

mrs_deadline

The insurance fraud Cheatline number is 0800 328 2550, give them a call and see if they will take your corner.

You'll find lots of information on their site about this scam - all the recent press releases seem to be about staged motor accidents!
http://www.insurancefraudbureau.org/press-centre.aspx

I hope you get somewhere. This kind of skulduggery can't be allowed to go unchallenged. And if nothing else, naming and shaming these characters to the IFB should ensure their cards are marked if they ever try it on again.

Debt_Free_Chick

Adelaide wrote: »

I feel that if somebody was able to test the witness statement - ie sat down and asked him where he was, why didn't he make himself known to police and why he only let OD know who he was - the case would fall apart but nobody seems inclined to do this? Can I demand that my insurers/legal team do this.

Sorry if this seems dumb .... but do your insurers know that the Police attended the scene, at the time AND (more importantly) that they have subsequently confirmed that their records show no existence of an independent witness?

Taffyscot

HI my son had a similar thing happen in Canada. There was an accident on the motorway and the cars were crawling along at about 5 kph. car in front jammed on the brakes in the middle of this crawl. My son hit him but there was absolutely NO damage to either vehicle it was just a crawl and maybe some paintwork on my son's car as the other person in a big van. Anyway other person asked for an ambulance and my son thought maybe he was disabled or something. Said he couldnt move. He claimed whiplash and insurance paid him even tho the accident could not have caused any damage to the person, none to the vehicles so how could he have been hurt? Anyway I questioned the insurance company's decision and said I wanted the other person investigated. Guess what? The other person had 2 other whiplash insurance claims paid out to him and it was obviously a scam. Insurance didnt care they just said it would cost a lot more to fight it in court. Never mind how it affected our no claims and my son's driving record. Disgraceful I think. Taffy

brownbabygirl

long shot but could you find out if there was CCTV?

Zebedee69

Mr_Bear wrote: »

zeb

so you are saying that just because someone believes that someone is lying they should fabricate evidence?

I have sympathy for him but i certainly wouldnt advise that course of action.

ive given my opinion if the orig poster wants to try to commit fraud thats a matter for him

Fabricate all the way baby:D

Mind you checking to see if there was CCTV and ringing the fraud hotline could be a better idea:j

cookie_monster

The same thing happened to a friend of mine when a call pulled out in front of him and caused him to run into the side of this car.

The guilty party admitted it was his fault verbally at the scene of the accident but a few months down the line a "witness" appeared and said it was my friends fault.

To cut a long story short it ended up as 50/50 fault. Always best to take pictures at the scene of the accident if possible and get the police involved.

littlepockets

I also had a false witness claiming it was my fault

I asked for a copy of the witness statement and it had several contradictions in it and I was also able to show that the witness lived a few streets away from the other party

And as with the OP he Police who attended had no record of a witness

So my advise is get a copy of the alleged witness statement. Tell your insurers that the Police noted no witnesses and that you want to peruse the matter to court. Most false witnesses wlll not want to risk perjury

Also see if there are any CCTV which you can use

Adelaide_2

Hi thanks for all the responses. To answer some of your questions:

• There is no CCTV as I've doorknocked local businesses - one had a camera but pointed in wrong direction!
• Our passenger's witness statement is worthless according to my solicitor cos she's not seen as an independent third party.
• OD's passenger was early teens;
• My insurers know the police were there but haven't asked for a copy of their report - in fact there is no report, just their notebooks in which they record their comments when they've attended a case - thought I presume they'd use this to write a report.
• Finding my own "witness" is a nice idea in principle but we're just not like that!

I've told my insurers not to settle and I will ring the insurance hotline number (thanks for putting that in).

My other thought was to get a solicitor to draft a letter on their letterhead to the bogus witness to the effect "that I will pursue him for damages in a civil court if the matter is settled in favour of the other driver, on the basis of his statement, which I know to be false."

Given that standard of proof in civil (as I understand it) is on the balance of probabilities and if I can call the two PC's as witnesses (I'd put this in the letter) I thought this might be enough to get him to retract his statement. Need to take advice from a solicitor about practicalities of doing this - but I thought it might be enough to put the wind up the bogus witness and get him to retract his statement?