Fictitious car insurance claims

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I'm wondering what the process is for disproving you were in accident.

The situation is this: we have been contacted by our (old) insurance company regarding our old car regarding an accident that never took place in an area of the country we have not been to some time last year (so 18 months ago). It is our old insurance company that part is legit.

The car certainly had not been there whilst we owned it and it was never leant to anyone, never stolen and had never been in an accident/incident. I have never been to that area of the country and my OH hadn't been there in decades.

We no longer own that car and are no longer insured by that company with our new car but did own that car on the date in question.

I don't know what proof, if any, has been presented (I doubt any given this never happened). If it was a week day then evidence may be obtainable proving where our car was (my OH works on secure sites so car gets signed in and out) a weekend will be harder but not impossible depending on the day.

Can someone please tell me what the process is for a claim to be legit? And how you prove a claim is not legit.

I have only had 1 claim before now (where a coach hit my stationary parked car in a petrol station and my car was taken away, a replacement given to me for a week, my car returned and all I did was sign a piece of paper) so I have no idea where we stand on this one.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I'd go straight back with the facts to your insurer and ask what proof has been presented. "The car certainly had not been there whilst we owned it and it was never leant to anyone, never stolen and had never been in an accident/incident. I have never been to that area of the country and my OH hadn't been there in decades."

 

[Drago]

I had a similar thing in 2003. Fortunately cctv showed my motor was parked 300 miles away in the car park of a particular police station at the time. It turns out the witness had read the VRM wrong and the white transit they had seen suddenly became my black Astra, so it's worth checking that the vehicle being described is also the same type and colour as you old car, and not just the same reg.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

Could the date also be wrong? perhaps since you sold it?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We will be. Luckily my OH works a lot on MOD sites so if it is a week day we may well have the evidence needed to disprove it but so far a few details.

I wouldn't have been driving the car with the amount of cycling I did last year!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Could the date also be wrong? perhaps since you sold it?

Hard to say yes or no to that one. Their date was month specific and we have only recently sold the car (July this year).

 

[stephec]

Isn't the onus on the other party to prove your guilt?

Do they have any evidence to show you?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Isn't the onus on the other party to prove your guilt?

Do they have any evidence to show you?

I don't know, that's what I was hoping to find out.

 

[Levo-Lon]

This could be a scam..whiplash claim etc be carefull..detail hunters

 

[welsh dragon]

Just give your old insurance company the facts. That you weren't there, at that time, and didn't have an accident. Then leave it up to them. They will deal with the third parties insurers. It may well just go away. Even if the third party saysnit happened, they will have to prove it, and they wont be able to.

 

[stephec]

I don't know, that's what I was hoping to find out.

Have they given you a detailed account of what's supposed to have happened?

 

[TissoT]

As said above : give your facts to your old insurance company .. and leave it with them to battle with the claimants' insurance company

 

[classic33]

Cloned plates!

Relative had the police visit him after "his car" was found in the carpark at Dover. He showed them his car parked outside.

 

[TVC]

They surely smell a rat, you just don't leave a claim that long. They most likely just want your confirmation so they can tell the joker where to go.

 

[NorthernDave]

I had a similar thing in 2003. Fortunately cctv showed my motor was parked 300 miles away in the car park of a particular police station at the time. It turns out the witness had read the VRM wrong and the white transit they had seen suddenly became my black Astra, so it's worth checking that the vehicle being described is also the same type and colour as you old car, and not just the same reg.

it's almost certainly this - it happens all the time. Tell your former insurance company to check the other parties facts. Their insurers (or more likely claim handling company) will have done a MID search based on a reg number (they frequently don't check that the actual vehicle matches, which you might consider to be quite a basic point) and found you were insured on that vehicle, and contacted your insurers to make a claim.
If you can indisputably prove that your car was elsewhere that is great, but it probably won't come to that.

The other possibility is cloned plates, but as you haven't had lots of parking tickets / speeding fines through the post it seems less likely.

Regardless it's a surprisingly common thing and your prior insurer will be able to resolve it as long as you give them all the details they need.