A tale of woe and insurance scams

First of all, thanks for the support and advice guys.

@Siftah and Boogle, i have legal cover with my policy so i should have a solicitor. Swift have been terrible and communication has been poor. because of this, i will be calling europa tomorrow or over the weekend to try get this resolved asap. will keep you all posted

Thanks again :thumbsup:
 
The whole situation sounds ridiculous, I just can't understand why his solicitor is taking this seriously. No accident report? No evidence? All for damage to a car worth about thirty quid? It's just all so tenuous. Hopefully in court someone will see that. If Swift Cover won't get off their arses and inspect the vehicle, maybe get a garage to have a look and see if they will agree it's not had any work (if possible)....though if the damage was supposedly light, this may be difficult. At least when your day it court comes you can point out Swift (who are supposed to represent YOU) have been hopeless and you have had to go to your own efforts to prove this is BS.

Hope you get it sorted.

Boogle said:
Oh lastly, have you tried Admiral?

For me (24) a 2.0 with 2yrs no claims can be insured for about £1,150 with £250 excess. They're apparently not great if you have claims
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I've been with Admiral 3 years. At 24, 5 years NCB my (2 year old) E46 M3 was £1230 FC, £400 Excess. Pretty good deal IMO and had no trouble at all when I needed to make a claim. I would definitely recommend the OP shop around with the likes of Admiral, Bell (Same people but a preference for low NCB drivers), and use insuresupermarket.com , which for me always gives the best figures. Renewal figures are always a con, they seem to think you will not check. Admiral / Bell have quite a nice quote engine as it allows you to tweak the policy in real time too.
 
Admiral quoted £2584.25 with 2 yrs ncb (after swift remove 2 years for the claim)

Just out of interest, had them quote with four years, came up with £2504.45 :o

must be the area/ghetto i'm living in at the moment

Forced to stay with swift. cant afford anyone else...
 
I cannot believe this story, talk about your insurance company letting you get shafted by a complete scam.

hope you get this sorted mate. if it does go to court I pray to god those scamming wan***s get caught out.


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Situations like that prompted me to go to law school. I got shafted one too many times.

Chrismann85, on our side of the pond, attorneys (your solicitors) paid by your insurance company are better than nothing, but you have to keep pushing them to take action. They tend to lack motivation to fight, and work for both you and the insurer, so their focus can be less than ideal. Ask your solicitor if there are laws/penalties in your country against frivolous litigation. Don't accept vague answers- they probably won't want to push the issue, since they get paid by the insurance company regardless of whether you win (at least that's how it works here- your experience may vary). Lawsuits filed with absolutely no grounds (no proof of accident, no proof that you caused any accident, your having proof of no damage/no recent repairs to your car (which you MUST have inspected/photographed sooner than later) over here can get you attorney's fees, punitive damages, and possibly even damages for intentional infliction of emotitonal distress, etc. I'd also consider filing criminal charges against the perp for fraud, etc. Fight the good fight, and good luck!
 
wiseguy said:
Situations like that prompted me to go to law school. I got shafted one too many times.

Chrismann85, on our side of the pond, attorneys (your solicitors) paid by your insurance company are better than nothing, but you have to keep pushing them to take action. They tend to lack motivation to fight, and work for both you and the insurer, so their focus can be less than ideal. Ask your solicitor if there are laws/penalties in your country against frivolous litigation. Don't accept vague answers- they probably won't want to push the issue, since they get paid by the insurance company regardless of whether you win (at least that's how it works here- your experience may vary). Lawsuits filed with absolutely no grounds (no proof of accident, no proof that you caused any accident, your having proof of no damage/no recent repairs to your car (which you MUST have inspected/photographed sooner than later) over here can get you attorney's fees, punitive damages, and possibly even damages for intentional infliction of emotitonal distress, etc. I'd also consider filing criminal charges against the perp for fraud, etc. Fight the good fight, and good luck!
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Considered fighting and claiming against the other side for losses, etc. It is slightly demotivating as I have been shafted by insurance companies and the court system in the past.

Apparently, the onus is on the other side to prove that I was involved in the accident, not on me to prove my innocence. I really hope justice prevails here and this guy is punished for this. I'll be calling Europa this afternoon after work to see what they can do for me.
 
chrismann85 said:
Considered fighting and claiming against the other side for losses, etc. It is slightly demotivating as I have been shafted by insurance companies and the court system in the past.

Apparently, the onus is on the other side to prove that I was involved in the accident, not on me to prove my innocence. I really hope justice prevails here and this guy is punished for this. I'll be calling Europa this afternoon after work to see what they can do for me.
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Afraid he will be an asylum seeker and on benefit (isn't our country wonderful) you can claim against him but your payout will be zero IMHO :x trying to prove he has equity will be :headbang:



Get onto Europa ASAP :thumbsup:
 
This is an insurance scam - report it to the police. Advise your insurance company that you will be reporting the 'scam' top the police and that you will be contesting any claim. Note who you speak to and when and make a full timeline of what you have already done. Seek professional legal advice.
 
Another thing I'll be doing whilst I'm on holiday from work next week.

I'll be staying at home for the week cos I spent all my holiday funds on my insurance... :cry:
 
Not being funny Chris, but reading through this thread you seem to be letting your insurance company deal with everything in the belief they will act in your best interests, they won't, they will do what ever is easiest for them and stuff how much it cost's you in the future.
One thing I have learnt (with out trying to sound like old man) is if you want something done properly do it yourself, if you can't get away on holiday this week because of your increased costs then make use of the time and hound the Police, Insurance Company and anyone else who will listen to get this sorted out before it goes to far, if it hasn't already.

I really hope you manage to secure the right outcome for you, but you are going to have to do some work to make sure it happens.
 
RichardG said:
Not being funny Chris, but reading through this thread you seem to be letting your insurance company deal with everything in the belief they will act in your best interests, they won't, they will do what ever is easiest for them and stuff how much it cost's you in the future.
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Agreed. My experience is insurance companies' first duty is to their shareholders. I'm afraid this is where you find out what cheap insurance really means. Easy for me to say as an old bloke though. Personally, I use a broker I've known for years which means I've got someone on my side. It's like finding a good indy mechanic - get a good one and you know you won't be shafted.

Sounds like one for plod - yours won't be the only case - all criminals share two attributes which are their weakness, laziness and greed. You'll need to be proactive though. Also, see if you can get direct contact with your legal rep too.

Good luck with it
 
For general information:

A claim going through the UK County (Civil) Court, as this one will, relies on a civil burden of proof based on ‘the balance of probability’ rather than the criminal burden which is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. The civil burden is much lesser than the criminal requirement which means any evidence presented (by either side) needs less supporting or circumstantial evidence to prove a point in issue.

County court Judges will in many instances review all the evidence to be presented in such cases before a hearing and where it is obvious a claim will not succeed advise parties accordingly or where it is obvious a claim will be supported again advise parties to try and reach an out of court settlement before the case goes to hearing.

Fraudsters often rely on the later occurring which potentially reduces the legal costs to a defendant’s insurance company which are often greater than the claim awarded. It is also worth remembering that the same rules of evidential probity exist in a UK County Court as for a criminal court – perjury. So if the claimant deliberately gives false evidence in court to support a claim then that person is liable to the criminal offence of perjury.

This is a matter which should be reported to the police who are obliged to record the complaint and make the necessary enquiries into the allegations made.
 
Good advice there AlanJ, and I second the point about insurance companies not being interested. It is not nice that you have to do all the work yourself but it is the only way you will get a good outcome from this.

First step = get it reported to the police.
 
Wow that is worrying, makes you want to install a couple of small cameras.... would be great to catch those car scratchers! Thanks for mentioning swiftcover, mine is up for renewal next month I have been searching around got a couple of speeding fines 3 years ago, 1 was 6 points the other 28 day ban :( unamrked police bike and unmarked motorway cop both times open roads no traffic ... very unlucky..... beware people never drive fast around east yorkshire the police are as sneaky as ever! Luckily I moved back to sheffield (and slowed down a bit) got a quote with swiftcover for 1.2k which beats tesco value at 1.3k! I notice swiftcover dont ask you in detail about the fines or if they are bans which is strange? You just list SP50 and SP30 ... roll on 2 years when they are off my license!
 
Hi, thought I'd give a quick update for those that are interested. And yes, it has taken this long for an update :headbang: My insurance appointed lawyers finally got round to taking a statement from me yesterday afternoon (only 10 months after the supposed incident!)

Anyway, while I was explaining to the guy that I was at home and my car was parked outside my house at the time, I noticed a few scraps of paper in his car. It was a statement from the other party's witness. Another eastern European name who claimed she didn't know the claimant (yeah right :? ). The first thing on her statement that didn't make sense was that she claimed she had parked on my road whilst she popped into a Polish shop ( :!: no shops on my road). She said as she was walking back to her car, she saw the accident. She said the silver car ( :!: my Smart car had silver bits but is mostly blue) drove into the red rover 200, the rover was not moving at the time. The front of the silver car hit the front of the red car :? ( :!: completely contradicting the original claim that I reversed into the guy!) She then refused to sign the statement she had just made, and claimed she couldn't understand English, even though she had just provided the whole thing in English!

Suppose its good in a way as it completely discredits the original statement. However, I thought it was a crime to provide false evidence but doubt she will get in trouble for it.

My side are saying that it shouldn't even go to court as they have no chance of winning. But I'm kinda hoping it does so that I can call these people out. I've also made it clear that I want to recover the costs of my insurance bump from the other side and I'm considering filing a claim against them, maybe for harassment or something similar, but need to look into this further.
 
Only just caught up with this....absolutely f*cking unbelievable!!!!!!

I know it was said way up the thread and these are wise words after the event but, being a fraud (potential or actual doesn't matter), this is a police matter without doubt - fraud is a crime, simple as that - I suspect had you called them in the first instance they would have interviewed the perps and the matter would have fallen flat on its face in a flash (not to mention action against them!)....indeed probably still not too late to involve them I'd suggest, it might see a quicker resolution and avoid wasting time with a court appearance, especially given the info you now have....don't be a wallflower! :thumbsup:
 
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