Man sentenced after discovery of damaged car scam

A man from London has been sentenced for making bogus car insurance claims for collisions and theft in a bid to fraudulently gain around £25,000.

Michael Smith was sentenced on 17 August 2022 at Central Criminal Court to two years imprisonment suspended for 18 months and 120 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £6,318.78 in compensation and costs.

He came to the attention of the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) after reporting to his insurer that his vehicle had been involved in a road traffic collision.

Shortly afterwards, Smith informed another insurance company, Aviva, that the same car had been stolen from outside of his home. Checks run by the two companies uncovered the two claims for the same vehicle, leading them to refer the case to the IFED, whose investigation then revealed yet another false claim involving a separate vehicle.

Smith previously pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation on Wednesday 1 June 2022 at Westminster Magistrates Court.

Detective Constable Justin Hawes, from the IFED, explained: “It seems that Smith thought he was on to a winner by buying damaged vehicles from salvage car dealers and using them to claim for damage and theft on his insurance. He even went so far as to change his name to enable his fraudulent plot.”

“Thanks to the stringent checks made by the insurers and their collaborative work with us, we were able to stop Smith from defrauding the companies out of around £25,000.”

Image: IFED

Mark Dugdale