In the UK today, 24 year old Mohammed Patel was jailed for staging nearly 100 car crashes as part of a massive car insurance fraud scheme.

Patel would charge clients 500 pounds to stage a car accident using their vehicle, so his clients could then claim for damages through car insurance.

Patel would drive his client's car, then brake suddenly, so the vehicle behind could not avoid a collision. Clients would then claim an average of 17, 000 pounds from the other party's car insurance.

Police and car insurance companies were made aware of the fraud after office workers noticed a suspicious number of crashes occurring outside their building.

The scheme cost the British car insurance industry some 1.6 million pounds in total. Patel is thought to have earned some 46,000 pounds for the scheme which began in 2005.

Patel was sentenced to jail for 4 1/2 years.

John Beadle, chairman of the UK Insurance Fraud Bureau has stated that "The cost of insurance fraud adds on average 44 pounds to every policyholder's car insurance premium annually," There are similar implications to car insurance premiums in Australia due to fraudulent activities. 

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