A gang of crooks deliberately caused a crash on a busy road that saw an innocent driver plough into the back of another car at around 50mph.
The incident was part of a nearly £50,000 "crash for cash" scam that saw four fraudsters make false insurance claims over the smash.
The unsuspecting driver caught up in the scam was left injured after the premeditated crash on the A1 in Hertfordshire on May 22, 2016.
Zahid Hairan, 31, from Edgware, north London, was jailed for 15 months after being found guilty by a jury at a trial in his absence after he fled the country to avoid prosecution.
His trial follows on from the sentencing of his three accomplices last September.
To carry out the plot, Hairan drove a bright green BMW 320I while his accomplice, Miatullah Marufkhail, 30, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison in 2021, drove a silver BMW 118D just ahead of him.
When a slip road merged with the A-road, Marufkhail slowed down and Hairan slammed the brakes in front of an unsuspecting Peugeot 2008, causing the car to crash into the back of Hairan’s car at around 50mph.
The crash shattered the windscreen of the Peugeot and the innocent driver suffered injuries to his hand and forearm.
Video of the smash showed the fraudster's vehicle suddenly break as a line of traffic moved on a slip road towards the main carriageway.
The victim's Peugeot 2008 could then be seen hitting the back of the scammer's car, forcing other vehicles to evade the stationary cars.
Around an hour after the collision, the police stopped Marufkhail in the silver BMW on the same A-road.
After the crash, multiple personal injury claims, such as whiplash, were made against the Peugeot driver’s insurer by Hairan, Kudrat Azizi, 35, who was jailed for nine months, and Ghulem Haider, 34, who was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
The group also claimed they received medical treatment the day after the accident and that they did not take time off work as a result.
A £6,930 claim for the cost of a hire car to replace the green BMW was also made with their insurers.
These claims were already suspicious as the innocent driver only saw two people in the car at the time of the crash and the claims from the men were almost identical, police said.
Damning CCTV footage and inconsistencies in the accounts of the men raised alarm bells with the insurer, who referred the case to the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) for investigation.
Medical reports were found that stated that Haider had been unable to work for four weeks due to the injuries, while Azizi had taken four months off from work.
Haider and Marufkhail were later arrested and interviewed.
Marufkhail denied his involvement and said that he was not driving the silver BMW at the time of the collision.
Haider claimed he did not remember the exact events which led to the crash as he was on his phone, but did confirm Azizi was not a passenger in the green BMW and that Marufkhail was driving the silver BMW ahead.
Azizi was also questioned and admitted to knowing the other suspects.
He also insisted that he had no knowledge of the crash and that he had not attended a medical examination for the personal injury claim.
Detective Constable Haywood, from the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), said today: “Once again, ‘crash for cash’ drivers have shown that they have no qualms in endangering the lives of innocent road users.
“Cases like this demonstrate the pure greed of calculated insurance fraudsters and the measures they will take to gain financially.
“The fact that the decoy vehicle was stopped by police on the exact same road just an hour after the first collision begs the question: were the group planning to cause another crash in the same way? Thankfully they did not, and now all four fraudsters have been brought to justice for this deceitful and dangerous scheme."
Neil Jones, intelligence and investigations manager at the Insurance Fraud Bureau, said: “These calculating ‘crash for cash’ fraudsters fuelled by their selfish greed, clearly had no care for the pain and distress they caused their victim to suffer.
“I’m pleased that this gang has been brought to justice and that innocent road users in Hertfordshire are protected from the harm they posed.
“‘Crash for cash’ fraud will never be tolerated, and we are working closely with IFED and the insurance industry to put a stop to these appalling car crash scams.”
