Court hears seven-strong gang staged fake car crashes

Two men from Brent have been sentenced for their role in a crash for cash racket that left cost car insurance companies more than �50,000.

Jamshid Ahmadzai, 20, of Harrow Road, Wembley, and Qasim Mehmood, 28, of Tanfield Avenue, Neasden, were members of a seven-strong gang who staged fake car crashes to make false insurance claims.

Harrow Crown Court heard Ahmadzai was one of two men who masterminded the scam involving three separate crashes.

The first crash in September 2007 resulted in a �32,000 fraudulent injury claim from Mehmood and another gang member after the Jaguar they were travelling in was hit by an Ocado delivery van.

The court heard a Vaxuall Vectra driven by an accomplice swerved across the Jaguar causing it to brake suddenly resulting in it being hit by the van.

A second crash in July 2009 involved Ahmadzai who was a passenger in a Mondeo driven by an accomplice.

Another gang member used a decoy car to cut across the Mondeo forcing it to brake and resulting in a Sky van ploughing into the back of it.

The gang staged a third crash four months later on the M4.

Last Friday (7), Ahmadzai and Mehmood were both convicted of conspiracy to defraud insurance companies.

Ahmadzai was given a six month jail term suspended for two year and

Mehmood received five months in prison suspended for 24 months.

Glen Marr, Director of the Insurance Fraud Bureau, said:

“Insurance fraud costs the industry an estimated �2billion per annum, adding, on average, an extra �44 a year to each insurance premium for every UK policyholder.

“Individuals who take part in such fraudulent activity, however small their involvement, face the very real risk of being detected, prosecution, imprisonment and living with the personal consequences of having a criminal record.”