Crash for cash

On 31 May 2021, the whiplash reform came into force in England and Wales: the Civil Liability Act 2018 and its implementing regulations set a tariff for whiplash injuries to the neck, back or shoulder lasting up to two years and ban offering or seeking a settlement without a medical report, and the small claims limit for road traffic personal injury rose to £5,000. The government was partly targeting crash for cash, the accident induced or staged in order to claim. The classic form is the slam on: the fraudster brakes hard in front of a chosen driver, often alone and in a hurry, who rear-ends him and will be held liable. In flash for cash, he flashes his headlights to give way, then accelerates just as the other car pulls out. There is also the purely fictitious accident between accomplices, recorded on an agreed statement, with passengers who were never in the car. The money rarely comes from the bodywork. It comes from the injuries claimed by each occupant, from hire of a replacement vehicle, storage and assessment, often through complicit garages and claims management firms. Claims handlers know the signals: several adult passengers in an old vehicle, a claim notified the same day by a third party, the same clinics and the same witnesses from one file to the next. A single signal proves nothing, and network analysis does most of the work by linking names across companies. In France, staging an accident amounts to escroquerie, the criminal offense of fraud, and the Badinter law of 5 July 1985 makes compensation for injured passengers almost automatic, which makes fake passengers attractive.