Cars, Cops & Criminals

In this episode, we were given exclusive access to a special Greater Manchester Task force who reveal the extent of one of Britain’s fastest growing motoring fraud which has become known as “crash for cash”. Organized gangs of criminals are deliberately forcing unsuspecting innocent car drivers to run into the back of them at low speed so they can claim money from Insurance Companies for fake injuries, time off work, and car repairs which can add up to thousands of pounds. The man behind the crashes in Manchester was identified with the help of a forensic medical artist and put under surveillance to gather the evidence that was needed to bring him to trial. The rise of car sales on the Internet means a substantial rise in the amount of fraud and the car review company Parkers shows how they have discovered a new type of fraud through the use of bogus shipping agents. At the ACPO vehicle car crime squad they are concerned with the use of false banker’s drafts used by Lithuanian fraudsters to pay for second-hand cars. We also see the high-tech criminals who use jammers to block the locks on our cars using cheap equipment that can be bought on the high street and the forensic locksmith reveal that there is already devices coming in from Eastern Europe that can override the immobilizers on most makes of car.