Gang made up Shropshire car crashes
Tuesday 20th December 2011, 11:00AM GMT.
Four fraudsters made up fake car crashes in Shropshire to net £37,000 from insurance firms.
Patrick Nsiah, Paul Tranter, Michael Degblor and Emmanual Le-Maire all admitted conspiracy to defraud when they appeared at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday and were each given suspended prison sentences.
The court heard the four either staged car accidents to claim cash from insurance companies or exaggerated the damage to a vehicle.
More than £37,000 was paid out for vehicle damage, personal injuries and hire car charges after the three accidents, two of which were ‘shams’ and never even happened, the court heard.
Nsiah, 41, Tranter, 42, of Degblor, 37, Emmanual Le Maire, 27, admitted a charge of conspiracy to defraud.
The court was told £10,000 was paid out by Direct Line insurance company, £9.947 by Tesco Personal Finance and £17,607 by Churchill Insurance.
Judge Rupert Mayo, said each of the men had admitted their ‘part in a relatively sophisticated fraud’.
He gave Nsiah a three-month suspended prison sentence and 180 hours unpaid work, Tranter was given a four month suspended sentence and 150 hours unpaid work; and Degblor and Le-Maire were both given a four month suspended sentence and 200 hours unpaid work.
All jail sentences were suspended for 12 months.
Mr Phil Bradley, prosecuting, said Degblor told his insurance company, Direct Line Insurance, he had been involved in a collision on the Shifnal to Wolverhampton road on April 2 last year.
But the court heard the claim was fraudulent and Degblor had been in contact with the other drive.
He said the second crash, which did happen, was on June 2 last year when Nsiah was driving a car in Telford but the reported damage was exaggerated.
The third reported accident on August 11 last year involved Le-Maire and a car driven by Tranter.
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