Cumbria 'cash for crash' scam: Nine jailed over £600K fraud

McCracken made 27 bogus insurance claims over four years

Nine people have been jailed over a "cash for crash" fraud in Cumbria valued at more than £600,000.

Carlisle Crown Court heard the scam saw insurance claims made for injuries and damaged cars that were involved in staged crashes at accident blackspots.

In one bogus claim, mastermind Mark McCracken, pretended to be a woman victim in a call to an insurance firm.

He admitted 13 charges of fraud and one of using false documents and jailed for seven years.

Eight other people were jailed for between 36 weeks and two years for fraud and money laundering. A further 22 people were handed suspended jail terms.

Police found identity packs for each fake insurance claim

The court was told 48-year-old McCracken, from Carlisle, oversaw dozens of others, including garage owners in the Carlisle and Wigton areas who provided him with MOT certificates for cars bought under false identities that were then clocked.

The scam was valued at more than £600,000, the court heard, and included claims following 27 bogus road traffic collisions between 2010 and 2014.

Police found identity packs at a family address of McCracken, which contained fake driving licences, bank books in false names and memory aids on post-it notes for each invented person.

Police were tipped off after the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) became suspicious of some of McCracken's claims that were not reported to the emergency services.

Others jailed for their part in the scam:

• Stuart Bell, from Wigton - jailed for two years

• Richard Miller, from Wigton - jailed for 18 months

• Duncan Pape, from Carlisle - jailed for 15 months

• Craig Palmer, from Carlisle - jailed for 15 months

• Michelle Lockhart, from Wigton - jailed for 12 months

• Jonathan Scott, from Wigton - jailed for 9 months

• Darren Snowdon, from Carlisle - jailed for four months

• Stuart Wise, from Carlisle - jailed for 36 weeks

The claims, which ranged in value, were made against various insurance companies for personal injury, vehicle damage, recovery storage and hire car costs. The claims were made against other drivers' insurance and were all made by false identities.

Judge Peter Davies described the scam as "simple in its conception, but sophisticated and elaborate in its management and organisation".

One of the clocked cars used in the scam

After the hearing a Cumbria Police spokesman said: "Not only has McCracken gone to great lengths to launder money and commit serial fraud, his confidence in his own criminality grew to the extent he was claiming collisions occurred on the same day he opened insurance contracts.

"This should serve as a warning to others thinking of doing similar that there are serious consequences to making false insurance claims. Crash-for-cash scams will be investigated and those involved could end up with a criminal conviction. In addition we will seek to remove assets from those we identify as having profited."

Ben Fletcher, director of the IFB, added: "The sentences handed down send a clear message that prosecution is a very real consequence for people committing insurance fraud."