Three taxi drivers sued after making fake Personal Injury claim worth £63k

Three taxi drivers have been sued for fraud after making a fake personal injury claim worth £63k, attempting to secure damages against a motorist by making false allegations.

Mr Jawed Iqbal alleged that the actions of an ERS client had caused a crash involving his vehicle. The ERS client had protested that the vehicle had actually been parked and vacant at the time of the accident.

Mr Jawed Iqbal’s large claim for £63,000 included signed witness statements from Mr Muhammed Naheem and Mr Qasim Iqbal verifying his version of events.

ERS alleged that it was the first time an insurer has used the Fraud Act to obtain sentences against both a Claimant as well as the witnesses who had supported the claim

Mr Iqbal’s accusations became unfounded following CCTV analysis showing that his version of events to be clearly false, leading Mr Iqbal to abandon his claim.

The Claimant and his two witnesses were employed as taxi drivers in High Wycombe and were all found guilty of fraud by misrepresentation. Mr Iqbal received an 18-month suspended prison sentence and each witness received a community order. Their taxi licences were revoked as a result.

According to ERS, false claims cost insurers more than £600 million every year. This is one of the first cases where a conviction has been successfully held by an insurer against false witness claims. It is also one of the first times an insurer has secured a production order on the release of a Claimant’s personal injury file in order to support the prosecution.

A Claims Manager for ERS said: “ERS has a zero-tolerance for fraud. We do everything we can to detect fraud and discourage fraudulent behaviour by taking tough action against perpetrators. Even though Mr Iqbal withdrew his claim when presented with our evidence, we took the decision that his attempt to commit fraud was so serious that we had no choice but to pursue a criminal prosecution.

“Many people think that insurance fraud is a victimless crime, but there are significant knock-on impacts. Fraudulent claims have a mental and financial impact to the other party, they increase insurance premiums for other drivers and decrease the performance of our broker’s business.

“In this case, the deception and misrepresentation of events and signing of false witness statements is an act of wilful deception, and we hope that this successful prosecution will encourage other insurers to take similar action and protect customers and brokers.”

Claimants of fundamental dishonesty is taken very seriously here at Jordans Solicitors. We deal almost solely with claims on behalf of Claimants in respect of Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence and it is a minority who spoil the legal landscape for the many. This leads to more difficult and protracted litigation which can be even more distressing for genuine Claimants who have suffered significant injuries as a result of negligence. 

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