A gang of claimants caught on CCTV throwing themselves around on a bus following a minor collision have been ordered to pay almost £75,000 to an insurer.
Insurance company Aviva, represented by defendant firm Keoghs, had faced a total of 40 claims which would have cost up to £300,000 for soft tissue injuries following the collision with a car.
But the claims collapsed after checks on the some of the purported victims’ backgrounds and CCTV showing other passengers remaining still following the crash.
At a hearing at Preston County Court last month, District Judge Burrow ordered that 10 of the claimants each pay Aviva £5,000 in exemplary damages. They must also collectively pay £24,600 on the basis of joint and several liability. The 10 individuals will also pay Aviva’s costs of making the Part 20 claim, subject to detailed assessment.
At the damages assessment hearing, the judge said: ‘Suffice to say that it seems to me that this was a fraud by which it was intended by the defendants and other individuals to make a significant profit from staging a road traffic accident.
‘Cases of fraud such as this are the very cases in which such exemplary damages will be called for; otherwise the amount of damages awarded would not come near to a reasonable estimate of the potential profits of the fraud.’
The staged incident happened when a Skoda overtook a bus before pulling out at a junction and causing a minor collision. All the claims were brought by individuals aged under 45, while on-board cameras appeared to show several elderly passengers apparently untroubled by the impact.
Investigations by Aviva and Keoghs showed several links between various claimants and the Skoda driver, with Facebook searches showing up a history of an accident involving the same driver and vehicle, as well as links back to the bus claimants.
Defendant lawyers applied to bring a Part 20 claim in the torts of deceit and unlawful conspiracy against six litigated claimants, the driver of the Skoda and three other linked individuals; with a significant number of further claims waiting in the wings.
By this time, solicitors for the six litigated claimants had come off the record leaving them as litigants in person. The claims were struck out and proceedings moved on to legal action against the 10 individuals.
Following the exemplary damages award, Keoghs associate Katie Lomax said: ‘This was a case where a number of individuals conspired together in order to gain financially. Had the fraud gone undetected a substantial amount of damages would have been paid out by Aviva and this behaviour is not victimless.’
