sometime ago, november last year i think, i got a letter out of the blue from a london based firm of solicitors saying i’d been involved in an rta with their client on the m60 manchester on the 1st of october and they were handling his claim for damage caused to his vehicle! what the hells this? i’ve not been in any accidents but looking through my job book sure enough i was on the m60 heading for heesham on the day, the letter had a part address which the post office had worked out was mine and the letter gave a part reg number which also matched my wagon 
so i rings this firm to sort it out, “it’s nothing to worry about sir we just need your insurance details and we’ll take it from there” i reply “but i’ve not been involved in any accident” the coversation got a bit heated and i refuse to give my details, i then ring my insurance company and explain the situation, they take the details of the solicitor and tell me they will sort it out, going on to say that there have been a spate of false claims like this one recently and advice me not to have any further contact with the solicitors. a few months pass and i forget all about it, i then get another letter, virtually a carbon copy of the first which i file in the nearest bin, then last week, a court summons, this firm of solicitors are taking me to county court for the sum of £1726 stating that i appear not to have had any insurance cover but again only providing a part reg for the wagon, i’ve replied to the summons, obiously defending the claim, stating that i will provide insurance details etc on the day. it seems almost laughable that these people think they stand a chance but what bothers me is why have they took it to court if they think they can’t win? there’s no mention of any witnesses on the claim but will they suddenly produce someone who “saw everything”?
have i handled it the right way, should i have given my details? my experience of insurance companies in the past has been that they’ll pay out on small claims regardless of prove or admission especially if the sum is less than they’re giving you in no claims bonus! rather than fight your corner as you’d expect them to.
what worries me is, if the solicitors pull some sort of stroke and win the case how does that leave me? will i be seen not to have reported an accident? will i be in bother with my o’license?
or are they just chancing their arm, hoping i’ll not turn up and the case will auomatically be judged in their favor?
Sounds like they are trying it on, hoping that you won’t turn up and the case will automatically go in their favour. Have you let your insurance company know of this latest development? Is it worth speaking to your solicitor?
Wonder what would happen if you did go to court and stated that the case was fraudulent and no accident actually happened.
Its a nasty business and I hope you can get it sorted.
Regards
Calv
Paul B get intouch with your insurance company,inform them ,you have kept your phone bill and does it have a itemisied list to show where and who you phoned also do you have any written confirmmation from your insurance broker stateing that they would deal with this problem
unfortunatly you need to have kept good records as this helps when
stateing and fighting your side of the case
ON the day in question can you recall if any thing unusaul happened,did the lorry have any damage on it this day< that was not there before
also if this person is telling the truth has he/she made a statement about the ““SO CALLED ACCIDENT”” to the police is there a report and crime no. did the police inspect the damaged vehicle if so what does the photos and report show and say about the damage and maybe how the accident occurred,
is it worth getting a private investigator to check out what happened
as it maybe that you are being taken for a ride , OR and this also can have happened you have been involed in a incident in the BLIND SPOT,s and the resounding impact was that neglible that you may have not noticed it.
This does happen PAUL , this is maybe one more reason why the accident
black box should be fitted to either prove or disaprove such claims,
Sorry to hear about this Paul, sounds as if they’re trying to screw you to cover another accident that they can’t claim on, it won’t be the first time. You HAVE contacted your solisitor haven’t you?! Best of luck, Simon.
theres no way i’ve hit a car and not known about it, i was only driving a little four wheeler. the claim is i’ve swerved across the motorway and colided with this blokes car and yet not stopped, not exhanged insurance details or anything else yet this blokes not rung the police and the solicitors hav’nt contacted me until five or six weeks later 
if it weren’t me going to court i’d think it was a joke!
the strangest thing is, i’ve not at anytime been contacted by the fella’s insurance company, surely if you have a bump you’d get them to sort it out, thats what you pay for isn’t it? why go to a private firm of solicitors who’ll charge you £100+ an hour?
thinking about it, the solicitors can’t loose, i turn up and say it’s a fraudulent claim, they say they’re only acting on information received from their client and he pays their bill or i don’t turn up the court judges in their favor and i pay their bill.
i’m going to ring my insurance on tuesaday to see whats gone off, but reading between the lines i think they’ve basically told the solicitors to f off so now after the best part of a year they’ve come back to me for another go!
it’s the witness thing that bothers me, what if they find someone to stand and say he saw the incident? how do i combat that?
i gaurantee if i get stitched up it’s not going to be pleasant in the court house.
paul, my boss has just had to something very similar for one of our drivers, the driver was in an accident with another vehicle and did stop to exchange details, our driver was adamant it was not him at fault so my boss refused to accept blame or pay for the damage to the other vehicle.
the other driver said our driver was to blame.
the long and short of it is that although we won the case we didn’t actually win anything for it, we just won the right not to have to pay for the damage to the other vehicle.
it doesn’t say where you are from but if the court case is a little far for you to travel then try to have it moved to a court local to you, you may win this concession because you cannot claim an allownce for the travel to outside of your area.
try to get the tacho for the day in question and if you know any police try to find out how many other vehicles there are on the road that could match the part registration they have offered.
you need to go armed with reasons why it wasn’t you or possibly wasn’t you.
you are asking the right questions, write them down ready for the court case.
i think if their are any witnesses then you have to be informed beforehand so you can prepare.
it might be worth contacting your insurance firm to find out if you are covered for legal assistance.
Paul if the guy has not been to the police then this ““STINKS”” of a scram to me,as any one who will wish to claim would have got a police crime no. speak to your brokers ASAP and talk to a SOLICITER and get his legal adivice and opinion therebye protecting your intrests.
All the above advice applies but in addition a skilled operator should be able to tell from your tacho if you had had an accident at that time of that day.
The Union, FTA or RHA should be able to advise if you are a member of any of them. If not ask a friend who is to ask.
Salut, David.
I’m getting took to court now for an accident that DID happen. The guy was doing about 50ish on an industrial estate and tried to overtake me while i was turning right into a side road. I got a witness to phone the police for me while i took all the details from the other driver who claimed he was insured third party only.
When the law got there, there was nothing they could do because there were no injurys so they left it to us to sort out ourselves.
My boss decided not to bother chasing it up because there was not alot of dammage done to my unit.
A couple of months goes by then i get a letter telling me i had to pay £2000 for the dammage to the ■■■■■ car.
He claimed i was parked up on the kerb with my hazzards on and then pulled out without looking, he was only doing 25 mph, there were no witneses and i drove off without stopping.
I’ve got two witneses who say exactly the same thing as me.
It looks like a classic case of ‘third party only so i’ll try to pass the buck all the way’
I guess i’ll be going to court then…
Oh yeah, and putting in a counter claim so he might just come unstuck after all…
Well Paul, you’ve mentioned something which goes very much in your favour already.
You stated that the vehicle you are alleged to have collided with did not contact the police.
I quote from the Highway Code sections 260 (& 261 if applicable) :
260: If you are involved in an accident which causes damage or injury to any other person, vehicle, animal or property, you MUST
- stop
- give your own and the vehicle owner’s name and address, and the registration number of the vehicle, to anyone having reasonable grounds for requiring them
- if you do not give your name and address at the time of the accident, report the accident to the police as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case within 24 hours.
(Law RTA 1988 sect 170)
261: If another person is injured and you do not produce your insurance certificate at the time of the accident to a police officer or to anyone having reasonable grounds to request it, you MUST
- report the accident to the police as soon as possible and in any case within 24 hours
- produce your insurance certificate for the police within seven days.
(Law RTA 1988 sect 170)
That’s a start, in your defence. 
Good luck paul 
I posted something similar last year about this, one of our drivers who was supposed to have sideswiped a car, this was done slightly differently though, the person rang the company giving a full registration of the truck that hit him, however there was not a mark on the brand new trailer, anywhere. It is a common scam I believe and I also believe there are professional crashers out there who claim whiplash injuries
I once delivered a full wagon & drag load to a freight forwarders in Tilbury and arrived before they started in the morning. The owner, the improbably named Barry Circus, was the first to arrive and he directed me to the rear of the building and to reverse towards the doors. It took the best part of the morning to tip because of doubts over whether it was needed or not, then over the roll count at the end. The fact that it was all handball didn’t help either.
Anyway just as I was getting signed up the aforementioned BC accused me of ramming his warehouse. There was a dent in the metal cladding but absolutely no marks on my trailer. I knew I hadn’t done it because I hadn’ t gone back that far.
He demanded I wait while his assistant went to get a camera. I agreed, having nothing to hide, however when an hour later in response to my question ‘how long?’ he said ‘whenever’ and getting the ok from the office I told his men I was leaving and pulled away. As I passed round the front of the building he came charging towards me waving his arms, shouting, and literally crimson with rage. Not wanting such a lunatic anywhere near me or my truck I drove on.
Within 10 minutes I had first our distribution manager and then the TM on the phone demanding I go back and apologise. I explained his extreme manner and refused. When I got back I was able to prove that I was innocent by demonstrating that rust on the back of the trailer was old and flaked quite easily to a lighter colour when rubbed, giving the lie to Circus’ accusation that I had been seen rubbing paint marks off. But it left a nasty taste for a long time.
And the reason why 2 managers had jumped through hoops to get angry with a driver on the road? (NSH take note) because BC had not bothered with them but got straight on the phone to our MD, dragging him out of a meeting and refusing to let him go until he agreed to sack me. He was livid and immediately started lashing out ‘down the line.’
Could have been worse. He could have followed through with his promise and then I would have missed out on all that lovely redundancy a few years later. Might have had a good claim for unfair dismissal though.
Salut, David.
well, spoke to the insurance who’ve asked me to fax them the court summons and they’ll sort eveything out, which i’ve done but i don’t like the idea at all, could be an out of court settlement and seventeen hundred quids worth of no claims down the swany if my past experience of insurance companies is anything to go on.
paul b:
well, spoke to the insurance who’ve asked me to fax them the court summons and they’ll sort eveything out, which i’ve done but i don’t like the idea at all, could be an out of court settlement and seventeen hundred quids worth of no claims down the swany if my past experience of insurance companies is anything to go on.
If you instruct your insurance company not to settle a claim (I’m fairly sure) they can’t until you actually reverse your descision and allow them to
no, that not the case, about five years ago when i was still doing paving, i had a trany pickup parked on a residential road where we were working a woman from the house accross the road reverses her car straight into the pickup, no damage to the wagon but made a mess of her car, she was very upset and appologetic. i rang my insurance as your suppossed to, then some weeks later this woman who couldn’t have been more sorry, claimed her car was parked on her drive and id backed into her and from nowhere had produced a “witness” who saw it all happen! i spoke to my insurance and made it quiet clear i was prepared to go to court if they wanted me to as long as they didn’t pay this ■■■■■ they promissed that they’d fight my case and not to worry about anything, two months later they’d payed out and i’d lost max no claims!
it’s all about minimum costs for the insurance companies, they’d obviousley weighed up the cost of fighting my corner and possibly loosing against paying out and then immediatly recouping their loses through canceling my no claims on a policy i’d not long renewed!
insurance companies are only on your side when your giving em money, when the tables are turned they’ll look after their own interests, every time.
renaultman:
If you instruct your insurance company not to settle a claim (I’m fairly sure) they can’t until you actually reverse your descision and allow them to
Big wrong!!!
Many years ago, as I ran along the M4 eastbound, a car suddenly swerved as it passed me, hit the central reservation and came straight across the front of me. I was fully laden with beer and hit him side on at 60mph. A absolute shambles was made of the car but luckily the people had been wearing their seatbelts and they got out alive!!!
Some months later, I received a summonses from Swansea County Court as these people were making a serious claim against me! Now the Police had verified that the car had had a blow out yet they were claiming I had swung out and hit them into the barriers. I was furious and when the Insurance Company came and interviewed me, I said I would go to court. I never got there much to my disgust because NORWICH UNION paid out!!!
What made me madder was that I was insured with NU and I asked them if my premiums would go up over this and they said YES!!! Needless to say, I never renewed my insurance with them and would never touch them again.
TheBear:
[NORWICH UNION paid out!!!
What made me madder was that I was insured with NU and I asked them if my premiums would go up over this and they said YES!!! Needless to say, I never renewed my insurance with them and would never touch them again.
I always did think that when NU said ‘quote me happy’, they meant them .
I wouldn’t trust any insurance company or any bank and deal with them the absolute minimum amount.
Salut, David.
TheBear:
renaultman:
If you instruct your insurance company not to settle a claim (I’m fairly sure) they can’t until you actually reverse your descision and allow them toBig wrong!!!
Many years ago, as I ran along the M4 eastbound, a car suddenly swerved as it passed me, hit the central reservation and came straight across the front of me. I was fully laden with beer and hit him side on at 60mph. A absolute shambles was made of the car but luckily the people had been wearing their seatbelts and they got out alive!!!
Some months later, I received a summonses from Swansea County Court as these people were making a serious claim against me! Now the Police had verified that the car had had a blow out yet they were claiming I had swung out and hit them into the barriers. I was furious and when the Insurance Company came and interviewed me, I said I would go to court. I never got there much to my disgust because NORWICH UNION paid out!!!
What made me madder was that I was insured with NU and I asked them if my premiums would go up over this and they said YES!!! Needless to say, I never renewed my insurance with them and would never touch them again.
That’s funny, because I too was involved in an accident, probably about 15 years ago mind. When the claim was made against me, it was nowhere near what had actually happened, I wrote to my Insurance broker, again NU, and told them thus, they apparently then couldn’t settle my claim without my consent. Little yella fella shrugs
I have just received a letter from my insurers stating they have been informed that I hit a car whilst changing lanes on the 17th December 2004!! can I fill in an accident claim form!!
If I had hit a car I would have known about it and the letter goes on to say that more details are being requested such as where? what time?
I am going to ring them first thing Monday and ask hjow come its taken so long if it happened last December to contact me??