A gang of three con artists staged a car crash and claimed injury to scam nearly £50,000.
Ismali Sari, 42, and Sultan Sari, 30, a married couple from Walthamstow, worked with co-conspirator Pinar Govenc to set up the crash scam – even though their vehicle was travelling at 0.06 miles when the alleged crash took place.
Govenc, driving a black Audi, claimed she collided with Mr Sari’s Citroen while turning at a junction in Enfield on May 3, 2019.
She claimed she was responsible as she was not paying attention and Mr Sari told his insurance company he was suffering from neck, shoulder and back pains and claimed his wife also had back pain.
Credit: City of London Police / SWNS
A mechanic assessed the vehicle as being worth around £10,500 and Mr Sari applied for a hire car while it was repaired.
But insurance firm Direct Line Group reviewed the telematics system on Govenc’s car and discovered a series of impacts on the evening before the crash was reported.
Four of these impacts were recorded as ‘high severity impacts’ while the vehicle was travelling at zero miles per hour, and at 0.06 miles when the latest alleged crash occurred.
When questioned about the data by investigators from the insurer, she maintained the crash happened when it did.
Credit: City of London Police / SWNS
Direct Line Group paid out £732 in total, but the claim could have cost them a further £48,220.88 to £17,500 for the two vehicles, £10,720.88 for the vehicle hire by Mr Sari and up to £20,000 for the injuries the couple claimed they suffered.
At Southwark Crown Court all three defendants were sentenced for conspiracy to defraud.
Mr Sari was given a suspended sentence of 12 months and was ordered to do 120 hours unpaid community service, while paying £100 in costs and £600 compensation to Direct Line.
Mrs Sari was sentenced to 70 hours unpaid community service and ordered to pay a total of £161.50.
Govenc, 25, of Haringey, was jailed for six months, but suspended for a year and was made to do a 25-day rehabilitation course and pay £161.50.
Detective Sergeant Phillip Corcoran, from the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, branded the scammers as “shameless”.
https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/19976308.three-con-artists-staged-car-crash-scam-nearly-50k/
