A company director involved in a cash for crash scam centred in Huddersfield which cost insurance companies thousands of pounds has been jailed for three years nine months.

Sahir Mohammed helped set up Advanced Claims Ltd with an accomplice Nadeem Khalid and was later found to have forwarded false claims for traffic accidents which either never happened or were exaggerated.

Khalid has already been jailed for his dishonesty. He and Mohammed were described as ringleaders by the police following Khalid’s sentence last month along with 43 other people.

Simon Waley, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday Advanced Claims Ltd was set up in September 2005.

Operating from premises in Blackmoorfoot Road, Crosland Moor, they forwarded insurance claims from individuals who said they had been involved in road traffic accidents to solicitors firms in return for a referral fee usually from £500 to £750 per claimant.

Search warrants were executed at their premises in October 2011 and in due course a storage facility where some of their files were held and from a selection of cases the shams came to light.

Mr Waley said in most of the claims before the court there had been no collision at all with damage to the vehicles being staged while in at least one there had been a minor collision which was then exaggerated.

Mohammed, 37 of Uplands, Huddersfield admitted conspiracy to defraud.

Khalid, 34 of Laund Road, Salendine Nook, Huddersfield also admitted four charges of conspiracy to defraud and was jailed for a total of four and a half years.

Crash for cash ringleader Nadeem Khalid, jailed for a major fraud

Jailing him Judge James Spencer QC said they were involved in one way or another in a “complex and systematic fraud on insurance companies.”

Such fraudulent claims for fake or staged road traffic accidents were expensive and ultimately were passed on to the innocent motorist making insurance for them more costly.

The business Advanced Claims might not have been set up for dishonesty but very soon after it opened Khalid was involved in the first fraudulent claim.

The court heard the first claim concerned an alleged collision between a Toyota Carina and a Ford Mondeo on November 19, 2005, with Sahir Mohammed saying he was a passenger in the Toyota driven by Nadeem Khalid.

Ultimately the insurance company did not pay them out because they were suspicious but £3,000 were paid in referral fees and some of those involved accepted it had been staged in a car park.

The second claim involved a Honda Civic and a Ford Mondeo with expert evidence saying the staged incident had been “specifically orchestrated”.

Insurance payments were made for personal injuries totalling £11,760 after claims from seven people while referral fees were £4,000.

The third related to an alleged collision involving a Vauxhall Corsa and a Rover in October 2006. Several injury claims were made with £4,000 paid in referral fees while the fourth claim involved a claim for a collision in May 2007 with £16,000 being paid out to individuals with Khalid and Mohammed overseeing progress of those claims.

Mohammed Nawaz representing Sahir Mohammed said the intention setting up the firm was to make money honestly but he had succumbed to the temptation of the false claims.

“He was very much the junior partner,” said Mr Nawaz.

After the case Det Chief Insp Paul Jeffrey said Operation Thatcham was a long and painstaking operation and showed: “We take the issue of so-called cash for crash scams very seriously and will take whatever action is necessary to bring those who involve themselves in this crime before the courts.”

44 sentenced for huge Huddersfield crash for cash scam: full list of those convicted - click here to read

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