An investigation into a series of accidents which helped saved insurance companies around £1.7million and resulted in the conviction of 15 people for fraud, has seen FirstGroup’s claims team nominated for a prestigious industry award.
Reading based Transportation Claims Ltd, the in-house claims handling team for FirstGroup, has been shortlisted in the Counter Fraud Initiative of the Year category at the Post Magazine Insurance Fraud Awards 2015.
The team helped uncover an elaborate fraud which involved cars and vans deliberately collide with FirstGroup buses at low speed, so passengers (who were complicit in the scam) could falsely claim from insurers.
Fraud was first suspected by a handler at Transportation Claims when, in the course of recovering costs for damage to buses, they noticed a surprisingly high number of personal injury claims arising from one low speed collision.
Further investigations found that a total of seven collisions all followed a similar pattern and occurred in Chester and Eastham between 2010 and 2012. In total, more than 200 claims for whiplash were made. All information and evidence was shared with Chester Police.
After three years of investigations, Manchester Crown Court found 15 people guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud and given sentences totalling 30 years.
Simon Robinson, FirstGroup’s UK Head of Claims, said “We are immensely proud of our efforts to uncover one of the largest and most serious fraud attempts we have ever encountered. The determination to fight fraud reflects our zero tolerance approach.”
He continued: “Thanks to a collaborative approach with our partners, led by Transportation Claims, savings of more than £1.7m were generated for the insurers involved. We hope that securing 15 convictions will help to deter other would-be fraudsters.”
Giles Fearnley, Managing Director of First Bus, said: “Although the staged collisions were minor, I’m horrified the safety of innocent customers and staff were put at risk in order to make false claims. Thanks to the expertise and attention to detail of our claims team, those responsible were brought to justice. I hope that the insurance industry recognises the efforts of my colleagues and awards them top prize at the Insurance Fraud Awards.”
The Insurance Fraud Awards, now in their seventh year, aim to recognise the efforts of those within the industry who have done most to combat and prevent fraud. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 1 October at The Brewery in London.
ENDS
For more information, please contact Niall Dowds, Head of Communications, First Bus on 07860 936671 or email [email protected]
NOTES TO EDITORS
FirstGroup plc is the leading transport operator in the UK and North America and our services help to create strong, vibrant and sustainable local economies. During the last year around 2.4 billion people relied on us to get to work, to education, to visit family and friends and much more and, each day, every one of our 110,000 employees works hard to deliver vitally important services for our passengers.
Our vision is to provide solutions for an increasingly congested world… keeping people moving and communities prospering.
First Bus
FirstGroup is one of Britain’s largest bus operators with around a fifth of bus services outside London. A fleet of some 6,300 buses carries approximately 1.7 million passengers a day in a huge number of communities including 40 of the UK's largest towns and cities. We operate some US-style yellow school buses and have a fleet of coaches available for charter. We also operate the Aircoach network in Ireland.