A court case has revealed that Mohammed Patel aged 24, took commissions from car owners to stage accidents in their cars, thereby enabling them to file inflated insurance claims.

Many motorists driving behind Patel were put at risk when he would suddenly apply his brakes at roundabouts causing the following car to slam into him. He tended to select lone elderly drivers as he believed they would cause less fuss.

To assist his scam, he would often disengage the brake lights on the car he was driving so that the “victim” would have no warning of impending danger and would be more prepared to think themselves at fault.

The owners of the cars Patel drove then claimed there were several people in the car who suffered whiplash injuries and the damage to the car was exaggerated. The court heard that around £17,000 was claimed for each accident and Patel admitted to 93 staged accidents - but in practice there were more.

So if you are involved in a similar accident or are suspicious about any accident you are involved in, inform your insurers and they will investigate and, if necessary, get the police involved.

A survey has revealed that specialist car insurance policies for the over 65’s can be as much as 805 more expensive than the equivalent policy from a general insurer. This will come as an unwelcome surprise to many retired drivers.

A spokesperson for the British Insurance Brokers association said that “these specialist insurers are not the only organisations that will provide cover for the over 65 market and many of them are more expensive than general insurers.”

Our advice is to use a comparison service but be sure to remember that price is not everything. Make sure you make a list of all the “extras” you want (such as a courtesy car if your is being repaired) and decide how much excess you are prepared to stand. Then get quotes for exactly the features you want.

As bonfire night and hallowe’en approach, it’s a wise move to check your home and contents insurance. Statistics from the insurance industry show that burglaries shoot up by 25% on bonfire night to the highest level of the year – and, guess what, claims for fire damage rocket by 45%!

And if you are going to have a bonfire or light fireworks, even in your own back garden make sure that your home insurance covers you for “personal liability”. A mishandled firework or a few wayward sparks from a bonfire can have expensive repercussions. Defending and settling claims for damage to property or if someone is injured, is beyond most people’s finances unless they have public liability cover within their home insurance policy – so check it out this week!

And perhaps for good measure, you should check your car insurance too! hallowe’en is a really bad time for malicious damage to cars.

We think that motorist and the motor insurers will have something to say about the latest advice given to the government. The advice is that motorists should always be legally liable for all accidents with cyclists – even if the motorist was not at fault!

The advisers are called Cycling England an organisation funded by the Transport Department and they want the civil law to be altered so that insurers would always be liable for compensation. Now hands up who thinks that advice comes from an impartial assessment from a neutral adviser?

I can’t see any hands! Let’s try again, who thinks that advice comes from an impartial assessment from a neutral adviser?

Thank goodness you’re all sitting on your hands, because the proposal seems absolutely daft to me!

Apparently, the proposal has been based on regulations in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany whose laws are heavily skewed in favour of the cyclist. Now I am less concerned about laws “skewed in favour of cyclists” than I am by the proposal lying on our government’s desk which advises that motorists should always be liable for an accident with a cyclist. To me the UK proposal goes two steps too far.

Let’s face it, why should a motorist have to pick up the tab if a cyclist is involved in an accident whilst riding the wrong way up a one way street? And what happens when the cyclist jumps the traffic lights or even goes through the lights when they are against them. These things do happen – I’ve seen it many times, especially in central London.

Motorists unite. Insurers unite. Defeat this daft proposal.

If you spread the payment of your car insurance by paying by direct debit, watch out! Some motorists are being charged as much as 40% interest by their insurers for the facility. The impact will be felt most by those with the highest premiums and the lowest incomes – typically the younger driver.

Research shows that many car insurers are routinely charging an APR of around 25% whilst some go up to 39.4%

Let’s name and shame the worst first – it’s the Green Insurance Company, charging more that 38 times more than the bank of England’s base rate, the massive 39.4%. That’s followed by that champion of cheap groceries, but it would seen not insurance, Asda. They are charging an APR of 28.6%. Virgin and Budget both charge 25.9% followed by Privilege and Churchill at just over 24%.

If you want to have interest free credit then have a look at Saga and Age Concern but the odds are you’ll find that their premiums are uncompetitive.

Insurers do not usually display their APR’s for their credit facilities until you receive their formal quote. And sometimes you have to scrutinise the difference between the annual and the monthly premiums to discover how much in pounds and pence, it’s all going to cost you.

The car insurance companies are at it again warning about impending hikes in our premiums. Well according to figures we’ve seen, premiums have already gone up! Between April and June this year premiums rose by an average of 3.5% to £778.13. And over the last year premiums rose by 11%. On fact premiums are rising faster now than at any time in the previous ten years.

The insurers are blaming several things. Apparently the number of drivers without insurance has risen to 1.6 million and it’s the accidents these drivers cause that’s costing us, the drivers who do have insurance, an average of £30 per policy.

And the cost of an accident is rising. Repair costs are rising, as are fraudulent claims. But the factor having the biggest affect on premiums seems to be those No Win No Fee accident compensation claims. Personal injury compensation and the legal costs that accompany them are siphoning money out of the insurers.

The biggest burden of these increased premiums is inevitably falling on the under 21 year old drivers. That’s not perhaps surprising as they account for ten times more accidents than drivers aged over 35. And only about half of insurers will even quote an under 21 year old!

And there is some streamlining afoot to speed up the systems to catch and fine those who drive without insurance. Powers are expected to come into effect in 2011 will slap £100 fixed penalty fines not just for driving an uninsured car – but for simply keeping an uninsured car! Now whilst it still seems a cheaper option to accept a fine rather than buying insurance, there is another sanction that has some real teeth. If they don’t produce insurance within 14 days, their car will be crushed.

This means that the police don’t need to catch uninsured drivers on the road. A new system will cross match the Motor Insurance Bureau’s data base of uninsured cars with the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency to find out who owns them. Then, hey bingo, they’ll see a £100 fine in the post and a car crusher on the horizon.

That sounds good to me!

There’s no doubt that texting at the wheel diverts the drivers attention from the road. In fact a research study has shown that drivers are twenty three times more likely to have an accident when they’re texting.

This leads us to wonder how the insurance industry will react to these findings. We think that they will soon bring in new clauses into their policies which allow them to refuse cover if the driver was texting at the time of the accident. Of course, someone has to decide that the driver was texting and we suspect that the insurers will rely on the police to prosecute the driver and then the insurers can take action if the driver is found to be guilty.

Then comes the question of whether the insurers will refuse the claims from third parties against a texting driver. We suspect not but they will down grade fully comprehensive cover to basic third party.

We shall have to wait and see what happens.

Few people are aware that most comprehensive motor policies revert to basic third party status when you take your car abroad. This means that if you were involved in an accident which was your fault, your insurer would pay up for the damage to the other party’s vehicle but not your own. Neither would they pay to recover your car.

Statistics issued by the AA show that the average repair cost in Europe is £400 but the cost of returning your car to Blighty could easily be £1,000.

Those companies that only provide third party cover for driving abroad include Churchill, Aviva (previously Norwich Union), Direct Line, LV, Sheila’s Wheels and Esure. Of the remaining insurers, some provide just a few days free comprehensive cover whilst others preserve the comprehensive cover.

Our very STRONG ADVICE is contact your insurer if you are intending to take your car abroad and double check the level of cover you will qualify for. If it drops to third party cover, get the cover toped up back to fully comprehensive.

The typical cost for upgrading to fully comprehensive is from £15 per week depending on the car you drive but there could also be an administration charge for £20 to £30.

And if you are driving outside the EEC always speak to your insurer and find our what you’re covered for.

The fine for not wearing a seat belt is doubling to £60. The Department of Transport says that this is not about money and is all about saving lives.

According to official statistics, around 565 people killed each year in car accidents were not wearing their seatbelt and of these more than 300 would have been saved if they’d been belted in.

Last year some 235,000 fixed penalty notices were given out because the vehicle occupants were not wearing their seat belts - and a further 4,000 cases were heard in court.

In our view is it simply daft to not wear a seat belt. No matter what “non-users” say, they don’t restrict your ability to drive the car and what restrictions they do impose are surely small beer compared to the pain and suffering they undoubtedly save.

If you don’t believe me ask the doctors who end up piecing together the accident victims whose injuries are twice as serious because they weren’t belted in.

Or ask the families of the 300 people who would be with their families now if they had only worn their seat belt.

To re-coin an old phrase – “clunk click every trip”.

The number of potholes being reported to local authorities has risen five fold according to a new study. This works out at over £1 million of damage to cars each day. And in Scotland and some areas of Northern England where the situation is worst, as many as 1 in 7 are damaged.

It is thought that there are more than 3 million potholes in the UK’s road network causing damage to vehicles and severe danger to cyclists and motorcyclists alike.

An the cost of putting our roads right?

It’s estimated that there will be no change out of £100 million and at the current rate of repair, it will take 10 years to put right.

Damage to cars can be caused by one big hole but more often than not it’s the damage caused by driving continually over poor surfaces that causes the real damage. The average repair cost is estimated to be £240 although the bigger claims which are often covered by an insurance claim, can be as high as £2,700.

If want to join the campaign for better road repairs visit www.potholes.co.uk

When you apply for car insurance, you have to disclose any motoring convictions you have. Is this fact or fiction?

We all know the answer – but, according to the Association of British Insurers, one in five applicants lie on their application in order to qualify for a cheaper premium.

As a result the car insurance industry is taking steps to gain access to the records at the DVLA to cross check every application. At the moment, insurers can only check a drivers’ conviction record when they make a claim.

In tough economic times, it seems that fraudulent claims are on the rise and priced within the average drivers’ premium is some £30 to £40 to cover the cost of fraud.

So if within the next year you make an application (or sign a confirmation of facts with your insurance renewal) and slipped in the small print you see that you have also given your approval for the insurer to obtain your driving record from the DVLA, watch out. You’d better make sure that the information you have provided is spot on.

If you get caught out, the best that can happen is that your premium will increase to its correct level, the worst is that your insurance will be voided and one more uninsured driver!

Most teenagers look forward to owning their first car. Then comes the shock – not the cost of the car – but the cost of insuring it!

Take a 1995 1.0L VW Polo for example. Not exactly a boy racers delight but it has four wheels and it will get you around. The cost of insuring that car for a 17 year old student is around £2,370! That’s more than twice what the car is worth.

No wonder the UK is experiencing huge numbers of uninsured drivers. Young drivers simply cannot afford the cost and, as a result, choose to drive illegally. If they’re caught by the police, the fine will only be a hundred pounds or so and they’ll get time to pay. So why should they worry?

Some will take the twilight option of insuring the car with their parents as the main drivers and them as a named driver. That would be cheaper and get them insured – or would it? Actually, no they wouldn’t be insured if the insurance company found out about the cosy arrangement. That arrangement is called “fronting” and it’s fraud. If the insurer can prove fronting, the policy would be voided.

In addition, the parents and the teenager would go on a central register maintained by the insurance industry of people who have defrauded an insurer. If you thought it was difficult to get insurance – any insurance – then try now!

We are not proposing any solution to this problem, but somehow it needs to be solved. Unless it’s solved, properly insured young drivers are going to be a rare breed.

We’ve always been told that the whole purpose of speed cameras is to reduce road accidents and injuries. But evidence released recently proves that simply is not true!

Witness the Gatso speed camera on the M11 at its junction with the North Circular near Woodford, Essex. That camera is reported to catch up to 3,500 a week, generating over £1 million per year in fines. A good little earner!

And what has happened to accidents? They’ve risen! Casualties at the location have virtually doubled and accidents have risen by a quarter. Police believe that crashes have increased because motorists are slowing down anticipating the camera and then accelerating once they have passed it. (Now who would believe that drivers would do that?)

If you are arguing the case for speed cameras on the sole basis of safety, then the experience o the North Circular debunks your argument. Roads would be safer without them. Well at least on faster roads which allow motorists to significantly slow down and then accelerate.

Bearing in mind that this M11 camera is the most profitable in the UK, does anyone want to have a bet with me that it will be removed to increase road safety?

I rest my case.

Vauxhall have proudly and hopefully introduced a new car at the Geneva car show. They claim that the Ampera, which runs off electricity, could go a long way to fulfilling Gordon Brown’s ambition of making the UK the ‘electric car capital of Europe’.

The car is charged from the mains and stored in a 16 kilowatt lithium-ion battery. An overnight charge from the mains, which will cost just one pound, is sufficient to take you 40 miles using just the battery power.

For longer trips you can achieve a further 260 miles by using the petrol-driven generator which is under the bonnet. Whilst driving on electricity from the battery, there is zero carbon dioxide emission. It is predicted that the Ampera will cost around a fifth the current cost per mile of a comparable petrol-engined car.

Vauxhall has plans to put the car into production at plant in Ellesmere Port, which employs 5,000 staff. They would switch from a short working week to 3 full shifts, 5 days a week.

Vauxhall’s owners, GM, are asking ministers to back a network of plug-in charging points to help the push for electric cars.
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson gave a positive response on a visit to the show, saying he though Ellesmere Port is a brilliant plant, as does GM, and offered assurance that the Government would stand behind it.

Some facts and figures show that the 40 miles of zero carbon driving, at all speeds, is around 10 miles more than 80 per cent of drivers travel in a day.

A full charge from a domestic socket will take 3 hours. Performance is 0-60 in 9 seconds with a top speed of 100mph
This is the vehicle being billed as one which could rescue the British car industry from the brink of disaster. At a cost of 20,000 pounds it’s hoped that it’ll be a leader for electric cars and a saviour for thousands of jobs.

The Ampera is scheduled to go into production this September and should be in the showrooms in 2012.

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The Swedish town of Trollhattan is set some 70 miles or so inland from the port of Gothenburg – Sweden’s second largest city. It’s situated on the banks of the Gota Canal and just above Trollhattan Locks and the area around is magnificent. There are the Trollhattan Falls – a spectacular sight when the sluices are opened and the water cascades down the valley, by-passed by an equally impressive flight of locks, blasted into the rock of the hillside, rise up in staircase style with pine forests and pastel-painted houses accompanying the journey up from the locks into a bright and picturesque town.

In the summer, pleasure boaters moor there for a while, to restock and enjoy the area before continuing on towards the crossing of Lake Vanern and eventually across Sweden and “out the other side” – Baltic bound. In the winter the traffic is solely commercial and as the canal can be frozen for months, a passage is kept open by the ice-breakers, making a terrific din as massive sheets of ice are forced to either side to allow the boats a passage through.

As you leave the town, there’s a massive road bridge and then on one side of the canal there’s a Volvo plant. On the other the Saab factory seems like its own small town and occupies a vast area.

There’s a black cloud hanging over the winter blue skies in the Saab area at present – and no doubt in Trollhattan in general, following an emergency meeting by the Saab board. Trollhattan loves Saab and are the Swedish people are very faithful to their brand. Saab’s been a way of life and they’ve been there since 1940.

General Motors have owned Saab for some years now and they have to cut 47,000 jobs worldwide to shore up its home base and to assure Congress that US federal aid will save American jobs rather than leaking overseas. As a result, the company have made the threat of walking away from Saab unless the Swedish government help out.

Maud Olofsson is the Swedish enterprise minister and she made the statement “The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories. “We are very disappointed in General Motors. But we are not prepared to risk taxpayers’ money; this is not a game of Monopoly,”
GM has long struggled to make money from its Swedish venture, but the losses have become a torrent in recent months. This begs the question “Has there been a level playing field or have Saab become a pawn in the game?”
For the people of Trollhattan it is beyond belief that their own government is not prepared to back their beloved brand. The future of which is very much in the balance.

The latest figures from the motoring industry revealed that the number of new registrations in January was over 30 per cent lower than a year ago.

On the other hand, dealers report an increased demand for used cars, saying there was a 20 per cent increase in sales over the year.
It seems that many cars are so well built nowadays that they’re seen as an excellent buy when they’re second hand. Without the registration plate to give away the age of a car, it’s often very difficult to tell whether it’s a “just run in” vehicle or a couple of years old. People are worried about their jobs and seem to be prepared to forego that “new car” experience.

If it has to be new, then it seems to be the time to start to look for bargains as the fall in demand has resulted in some impressive promotional offers from the manufacturers. If new car sales continue to fall, there could be some real deals out there.

Despite Gordon Brown’s best efforts, the car industry workers continue to worry about the safety of their jobs – and understandably so.

We were watching a programme this week which gave a mention to the German plan of the Government paying a sum to owners of cars older than ten years, to take the car off the road and scrap it. I didn’t hear the full details, but enough to make me think it sounded totally sensible.

It seems a sound plan. It would help the whole market – from the bottom upwards. Drivers changing from a real old banger to something a bit newer and so on. It would get rid of a lot of rubbish from the roads and increase safety.

A modest amount of finance could result in people upgrading to something more economical and reliable, therefore saving money on running costs. Car insurance would probably be cheaper too.

The second hand car forecourts are full to overflowing with lower to middle end of the range cars, which people with a healthy deposit (provided by the Government) would surely snap up.

Come on Mr Brown – how about it? Give everyone a bit of a leg up.

I remember when the new registration plates used to come out on 1 August. For the first few days you’d “car spot” and as the years went on, the numbers seemed to get greater every August. Garages would open up specially so that you could come and admire their stocks and collect your new car on the stroke of midnight.

There seems to be a return of those days. New cars are getting rare enough to grab people’s attention. There’s nothing quite like the pleasure of driving your new toy out of the showroom and knowing that it’s your own choice – right down to the shine that only a new car can have.

The news freshly out from the Government in their promise to help out Britain’s car industry will hopefully raise the spirits of the millions of people employed there. Loan guarantees and re-training are promised as well as an additional billion pounds in loans to encourage investment in “green” vehicles.

Hopefully, when the full package is unveiled, it will prove to be rather more than the “pretty small beer” comment from shadow business secretary Ken Clarke, who has accused labour of lagging behind in their offers of help.

So it looks as though its going be “any colour, as long as it’s green” and fingers crossed for the easing of finance to get trade going again.

Author: Richard Norfolk

With ‘unsolicited mail’ campaigns and extensive advertising, it appears that car insurance is very popular amongst providers. The sheer variety of schemes being offered to satisfy different requirements, when multiplied by the number of companies active in the market, presents motorists with a choice of routes as complicated as a road map.

Most providers have some sort of restrictions in place to filter out the higher risk drivers. These, including the apparently accident prone and those who flirt with the law by amassing points on their licences, are not popular with most insurers. Their cover is left to specialist companies who are prepared to take them onto their books in exchange for very high premiums.

There are also what might be termed ‘specialised exclusions’, where drivers are excluded by a company because of their record. For example a driving ban will result in refusal of cover from the Halifax, whilst a drink driving offence or 12 penalty points on your licence will result in a ‘no’ from MoreThan.

If you are in the sort of category where you are penalised for misbehaviour, then it is only right that insurance companies avoid passing your hefty costs on to more conventional customers. If you are anxious to get driving again, you could find it hard work trying to shop around for a company which is prepared to take you on. In these circumstances a broker will do a lot of the ‘leg work’ for you, and than can be no easier way to set this enquiry in motion than a visit to brokers web sites.

The remainder, those run-of-the-mill motorists who manage to negotiate life’s roads with only the occasional bump, are then faced with such a variety of choice that deciding on which insurer to go with could easily occupy far more time than the decision is worth. Perhaps the best start is to decide if you fall into one of the special categories which offer advantageous terms.

Gender is perhaps as good a starting point as any. Chauvinistic male motorists should consider the fact that their female counterparts can get special terms, based on the statistically safer driving of female motorists. However, the ladies should examine the terms and costs on offer rather carefully, as it does not necessarily follow that the best deals are offered by the specialists.

With any insurer it will pay to look beyond the ‘puffing up’ of the adverts and check out the finer detail. Will your no claims bonus be protected? Will the approved repairers supply a courtesy car? Is breakdown cover included within the basic cost? There tend to be a lot of extras available which in some cases will be covered in the basic cost, but where they are not provided as standard they could really load your premium.

Amongst the questions to be answered will be what level of excess you are prepared to pay, where is the car normally parked i.e. road, drive or garage, is an alarm or immobiliser fitted, do you need cover to drive other cars, and even – are you married? Single drivers often pay a higher premium, but don’t try getting married just to cut your insurance costs!

On the other hand you need to ignore ‘benefits’ which you are unlikely to need. Free cover for motoring abroad for example, is a waste of money if your car will never leave these shores. In this case you have to remember that there is a cost factor built into the premium for any ‘free’ service, unless of course you have discovered the contradiction in terms – the totally altruistic insurance company!

Many other groupings exist, where favourable terms may be offered to drivers meeting specific criteria. These can relate to age, employment, driving experience, even the make of car to be covered.

Whilst age can be used to apply ‘penalties’ in terms of cost for older drivers, where possible loss of alertness or slower reaction times are felt to make accidents more likely, the slightly younger can have an advantage. For example, those just retired are likely to cover less miles per year, and will almost certainly do the greater part of their motoring when the roads are less busy outside the rush hours.

Civil servants have for many years been able to get advantageous terms on a variety of insurance cover needs, with deals negotiated on their behalf on the basis of the large numbers who are likely to respond to the offers. It may be worth enquiring if your employer or your trades union has any such arrangement.

Owners clubs, comprising enthusiasts who drive a specific make or type of car, sometimes make similar arrangements for members whose choice of car could invoke insurance cost penalties. Classic cars of even recent vintage can be very costly to repair, especially when parts are difficult to obtain, and performance models have obvious dangers for drivers and insurers, including repair costs for drivers as well as cars!

It is all a bit of a minefield, so your best move has to be to go online and find a broker who will do most of the hard work for you, but first of all decide on the options which you need and which ones you can manage without.

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Author: Emma Mayo

Speed cameras are already the bane of the driver’s existence. There’s a lot of dispute as to whether they do help save lives, but one thing’s for sure, the Government is making a lot of money out of our collective inability to keep within the speed limits.

If you thought it was bad before, a new speed camera is being tested at the moment that could take the concept of being watched on the roads many steps ahead of its current format.

The new device, manufactured in South Africa, is a digital red light camera and speed camera that can be used both in mobile speed traps and fixed-camera setups. The strength of the device lies in its ability to perform more than one task – meaning double trouble for motorists. Not only can it take up to 100,000 digital images, it can also monitor three lanes of traffic at once. And it can be used as a mobile hand-held camera by police during the day shift, and then stored in stationary housing to continue its job throughout the night. It can also be controlled remotely so the camera can focus and zoom in as required.

Every picture that’s taken is accompanied by GPS time, date and location information, all thanks to WiFi and GSM systems, then the information can be downloaded to a remote base using mobile phone technology. Made by Truvelo, the ‘D-Cam’ will be ready to go on Britain’s roads just one year after it’s approved by the Home Office, which is set to happen imminently. It’s already proved popular in South Africa and Brazil.

At £30,000, the system isn’t cheap, but if you take into account the cost of a speeding fine - £60 – and then multiply that by 100,000 (the amount of pictures the camera can store) and that’s a significant profit margin for the authorities! Truvelo make around 20% of the speed cameras currently on British roads, they can only take 700 film pictures, so they need reloading on a regular basis – so the difference between the two technologies is quite significant.

So what does it mean for motorists? It means there’s even more chance of getting caught speeding. And if you receive a speeding fine, that will affect your car insurance premiums. With a quarter of British households having at least one speeding fine, which gives you three points on your driving licence, it’s a big issue, and it’s giving the car insurers an opportunity to cash in.

Recent AA research found that a driver with a speeding offence could expect to pay an average of 20% more on car insurance. Even if your record was as clean as a whistle before, you will be penalised. Don’t be tempted to withhold the information from an insurer either, as if you come to make a claim and the information is discovered, your policy will be declared null and void.

So if you get caught speeding, and the chances of that are likely to increase once the D-Cam is introduced, what can you do to keep your car insurance at an affordable level? Be extra sure to shop around. Never blindly accept a renewal from your insurer without checking out the competition, and get as many quotes as you can to make sure you’re not paying more than necessary. Many drivers pay more than they should because they fail to get a few quotes – and if you have points on your licence for speeding, it’s more important than ever to keep on top of things. Go online for the cheapest quotes, and be sure to get as many quotes as you can!

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