I just thought I would reproduce here the correspondence I’ve had to send today. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
First, a letter to my insurance company.
Dear Sir or Madam,
Your ref XXXXXXXXXX
The incident to which you refer was not reported to yourselves at the time because no damage was caused to the other vehicle, no injury occurred, and the incident was caused entirely by the other driver’s negligence in parking in an unsafe position.
The circumstances are as follows. I had made a delivery to Selco, Walthamstow in an articulated lorry, being unloaded in the dedicated unloading area. After delivery, I checked that the road was clear behind my vehicle, climbed into the cab, checked my mirrors and started moving backwards. However, in the time it had taken me to climb into the cab, the other driver had pulled up behind my vehicle, so close that it was not possible to see it in my mirrors. As I moved backwards, he immediately sounded his horn and I stopped. I am not even sure that my vehicle made contact with his, but if it did it would merely have touched it. I can supply detailed tachograph data from this day if required, including my exact speed which I would estimate at 0.5 mph. When asked why he had parked in such an unsafe place, he replied that there “was nowhere else to park”.
At the time, the driver twice tried to claim that the headlight of the vehicle had been broken. However, as you will note from the enclosed photographs, the damage was pre-existing and the headlight had previously had some temporary repair effected with sticky tape, this also making the vehicle unroadworthy and illegal.
The driver also attempted to claim that the dent in the panel beneath the headlight had been caused by my vehicle; however, as you can see, the sticky tape was already stuck over this dent, the dent is oxidised rather than being bright metal, and there is no fresh paint beneath the tape. He also claimed that the front panel had been dented in the centre: as you can see this is thick with rust.
You will note that apart from this pre-existing damage that there is no damage to the vehicle. The pre-existing damage runs in a line from the bonnet, through the headlight and the front panel to the bumper which has been pushed in on the offside only. The vehicle has obviously had a heavy frontal impact with some type of pole or stanchion, this is not damage which would be caused the flat horizontal surface of a trailer under-run bar.
The policyholder has since phoned me, and acknowledges that the damage was pre-existing and was caused by a previous employee of his. He was evidently unaware that I had taken these photographs and is rapidly trying to back-track.
Nevertheless he acknowledges that he has knowingly attempted to claim the cost of pre-existing damage against my insurance, making this a criminal offence, namely attempted fraud. I have asked him for a copy of the repair estimate, but he has not provided this. Therefore I request that you provide me with a copy of this, since if it includes the cost of any repair which the policyholder knew was pre-existing, I intend to report him to the Police with a view to having him charged with fraud.
I will fax you a copy of my driving licence this week.
Yours Faithfully,
Harry Monk
Now the photos.
And now a letter I am sending by recorded delivery to the registered address of the company.
Dear Louanne,
I have sent you a copy of the letter I sent to my insurance company today, along with the photographs I sent them. I also had to complete a claims form, I will send you a copy of this on request.
To be perfectly honest, I have better things to do with my limited time. I am trying to run a business single-handedly during the most difficult economic times I have ever known, I have more than enough to do at the weekends, including spending time with my children, to have to deal with this nonsense.
However, I’m not going to pay a £500 excess and see my premiums go through the roof next year because I have been targeted by a couple of con-artists. I mean what I say in the letter, fraud is one of the most serious offences on the statute book in the U.K., and almost inevitably leads to a custodial sentence. I will do my utmost to ensure that this is what you get if you do not come to your senses immediately and advise your insurance company that on reflection, you realise that you might have been mistaken.
Yours Sincerely,
Harry Monk.
I will let you know what happens as things progress. The company is called MTL Logistics Ltd. I will direct the insurance company to this thread if anybody has any comment.
