Obiter was interested to read an investigation by the Sunday People into what it described as a new ‘car crash compensation scam’.

The details appear to make grim reading for claimant lawyers.

The article alleges that rogue claims companies are paying car recovery firms and garages for personal details of drivers who have had crashes.

Quite how this counts as a ‘new’ scam is difficult to judge, given that plenty of examples of the media reporting on such practices exist, including by the Sunday People’s stablemate, the Mirror. Even the government seems well aware of what goes on.

Still, the latest expose of the dark forces behind Britain’s ’compensation culture’ (sic) at least features testimony from a victim of cold-calling who was ‘bombarded’ with messages following a minor prang.

Ian Crowder explained how he was offered up to £5,000 for the accident and told that money is ‘reserved’ by insurers after such bumps.

Crowder, as the article explains, is an ‘AA executive’. Indeed he is. To be more precise, he is head of PR for AA’s insurance business - and has been for 12 years. Crowder has obviously done sterling work, as the first person quoted in the Sunday People story is Stephen Gaywood, the AA’s director of fraud.

We don’t know who signed off an AA statement in 2012 declaring: ‘We must kill the compensation culture.’ Still, by sharing his harrowing story with the nation’s press, AA spinner Crowder is clearly doing his bit…

Topics