Eight men have been sentenced to jail for their involvement in a cash-for-crash scam that almost defrauded insurers of £40,000.
Leeds Crown Court heard on October 7 that a collision between a BMW and a hired Vauxhall Corsa was staged on January 23, 2013 on Barnsley Road.
The fraudsters faked the incident so that insurance claims could be made for car damage and supposed personal injury, the
Huddersfield Daily Examiner reported.
Prosecutor John Sharp said the total claims – had they succeeded – would have cost insurer
Zurich about £40,000.
The crashed vehicles’ drivers and passengers admitted conspiracy to defraud, with some saying that financial problems motivated them to do so.
Drivers Andrew Cleary and Mason Joseph Brayshaw were sentenced to 20 months and 14 months of imprisonment respectively. Both were also disqualified from driving for nearly two years.
Passengers Joseph Pinnock, Thomas Summers, Joshua Turner and Sean Boustead were all sentenced to prison for 10 months while Daniel Brayshaw and Ellick Smith each received seven-month jail terms.
“When courts are faced, as here, with an orchestrated attempt to defraud an insurance company out of a large sum of money we are not concerned simply with punishing those who do it but deterring others,” the
Huddersfield Daily Examiner quoted Judge Tom Bayliss QC as saying.
“This type of fraud impacts on the public because the public pay for it in terms of increased insurance premiums,” Bayliss added.
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