Dashcam uncovered crash for cash scam
A dashboard camera uncovered a dangerous crash for cash scam, a Manchester court heard.
The on-board footage showed Audi driver Alina Khan, 30, from Oldham, brake heavily to stage an accident.
She was given a suspended jail sentence at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court after admitting fraud by false representation at an earlier hearing.
The crash took place in Chester Road, Hulme, in June 2011. The court heard the victim’s vehicle was fitted with a dashboard camera. The incident was passed to fraud investigators after co-defendant Yasin, 32, gave details of the crash to accident management firm boss Ahmed, 31, who put in a fraudulent claim for up to £30,000 damages to insurers LV (Liverpool Victoria).
Judge Angela Nield told Khan, of Eric Street, Oldham, she had committed a ‘wicked and dangerous’ act which usually merited an immediate custodial term, but she could suspend the sentence after reviewing medical evidence involving her disabled daughter.
The court heard Khan had breached the terms of another suspended sentence given to her in 2010 for benefit fraud.
Martin Callery, defending Khan, said it was a ‘single isolated incident’.
Judge Nield said: ‘The public interest is undoubtedly served on the face of it by an immediate custodial sentence, however, the public interest is also balanced in a case of this importance and it is balanced in this case in the monetary and, perhaps more importantly, the emotional terms of being placed in custody.’
Khan was given a 14-month sentence suspended for two years and will also be supervised by the Probation Service for six months.
Co-defendants Kamran Yasin, 32, of Brook Lane, Oldham, and Sarafaraz Ahmed, 31, of Cambridge Road, Oldham, who both admitted the same offence, are due to be sentenced next month.
