An investigator has told the BBC that fraudulent claims were much more widespread than previously believed at the now-collapsed Accident Group, which had been the largest personal injury claims firm in Great Britain. “”At a very conservative estimate there were 200 people suspected of making claims up,” of a 1,500-person sales force, said Paul Stott. “With some of the people that I have dealt with, from the day that they started until their activities were brought under the umbrella of an investigatory procedure, every single claim that they wrote was fraudulent. It was apparent to a man with one eye.” (Pip Clothier, “Accident Group fraud investigator speaks out”, BBC News, Jul. 30). In Parliament, Merseyside MP Peter Kilfoyle “said sales reps targeted vulnerable, poverty-stricken people, enticing them to fabricate claims. He claimed some reps waited for vulnerable people outside Job Centres, others even stood outside Liverpool Prison to persuade people to claim they had a bad back caused by sleeping on lumpy mattresses.” Meanwhile, execs were tooling around in company-owned Ferraris and a Bentley and the company founder had amassed “assets in excess of ?40m, including a ?3.5m home in Cheshire”, said Mr. Kilfoyle (Ian Craig, “Sales reps ‘lay in wait for poor'”, ManchesterOnline, Jul. 18). The Accident Group made headlines in May when it suddenly announced that it could not pay its bills and dismissed 2,400 workers, informing many of them by text messages to their mobile phones (BBC, “Bust company sacks workers by text”, May 30).
UK: fraud charges fly after collapse of claims group
An investigator has told the BBC that fraudulent claims were much more widespread than previously believed at the now-collapsed Accident Group, which had been the largest personal injury claims firm in Great Britain. “”At a very conservative estimate there were 200 people suspected of making claims up,” of a 1,500-person sales force, said Paul Stott. […]
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