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| Britain |
| Car Crash Con Gang |
| 2006-08-30 |
| IT is close to midnight outside a pizza parlour - and four cars nearby are waiting to be crashed into innocent drivers so gangs can scam a fortune from fake insurance claims. A 6ft Asian with cropped hair who belongs to one of four gangs in the South East each pocketing £2million a year from the con, is to coordinate the night's kamikaze mayhem. In the next six hours two lorries will become victims, careering into the rear of cars which brake heavily in front of them. The truck drivers suspect nothing because in each case they have seen another car swerving in front of the motors they have hit. Unknown to them, the driver of the second car is also a gang member. While the accomplice's car speeds off, the lorry driver and "victim" exchange details. The trucker's insurance then pays out on a claim for vehicle damage - and maybe personal injury and hire of a replacement vehicle - filed by a crooked claims company. Sickeningly, while in it mainly for the money, the fraudsters get kicks from each crash, laughing at the terrified faces of drivers as they are run off the road at up to 70mph. Ten vehicles a night can be targeted. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #2 This is called "Swoop & Squat". Often the prinicipals are crooked lawyers who've teamed up with over-billing chiropracters. A group of illegal immigrants are recruited for a small fee and loaded into a barely functional vehicle for the takedown. All involved, including the various wheelmen, need to face charges of attempted premeditated murder. Frequently, especially with big rigs, the truck simply steamrolls the squatting vehicle, killing all inside. My sympathy goes to the poor truck drivers who have their DMV record ruined and face job loss from such corrupt doings, let alone the horror of having to remember an entire carload of people being killed in front of them. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-08-30 20:38 |
| #1 Mirror does not say whether the photo evidence and names of the scammers have been submitted to authorities. I hope yes, but with "journalists", one never knows. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-08-30 19:30 |