UK: Mastermind of 'crash-for-cash' scam sentenced to jail

40 year old Paul Jonathan Wright, 40, has been sentenced to seven years in jail for organising a crash-for-cash scam. He made use of his breakdown recovery company, PJ Autos, as a front to commit the multi-million pound fraud. He engaged gang members to intentionally cause accidents before submitting insurance compensation claims for whiplash. His gang primarily targets innocent drivers. To make the setup seem more realistic, his company would even issue invoices to the insurance companies for removing and storing the damaged vehicles, and even charge for hire cars. The scam was one of the biggest of its kind ever seen in Britain, and so well disguised, that it estimated to have brought in more than £3 million for Wright and 60 other criminals over the last 12 months. The court heard the scam was so lucrative that insurance companies had to raise the insurance premium of the 100,000 people living around the Derwentside area of County Durham by about £100 a year.

OneShift Editorial Team

23 Apr 2013

The gang operates by braking sharply in front of the unsuspecting drivers, causing them to crash into the back of the gang’s vehicle.The gang’s stooges would brake sharply in front of unsuspecting drivers, allowing the recovery business to make apparently genuine earnings from clearing up the aftermath. Drivers who caused the accident would submit false insurance claims for whiplash, lost earnings and legal costs. Frauds commited at a later date would usually involve having their associates fill up the car. All of them would go on to make false insurance claims.

Wright was apprehended after rising insurance claim costs and a suspicious claim pattern triggered a police investigation. The UK’s Insurance Fraud Bureau then stepped in. The most serious crash caused by a similar scam caused the death of a 34 year-old woman. She was the target of a £20,000 fraud.

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