Insurance scam

[roy lovelock]

Hi guys
i thought i would put a heads up to people driving in the south east england atm, i had the closest call ever in my driving career two nights ago at 1am.
I was driving down the A127 southend bound and had two cars following me from the mobydick pub. After a while i was a bit suspect as they made no effort to over take even when i adjusted the cruise control , they stayed there until the halfway house pub.
Then one of the cars (and old banger escort van) overtook me, i already was suspisious and was ready to pull off or brake, then he locked it up with no brake lights. The car had PL on there so if im not mistaken thats a polish plates?
The good old stilo brakes done the job and i was able to weave around, thats when i opened up the turbo to get out of there. I couldnt tell what the other car was, but i suspect it was a BMW of some sort looking at the headlight design - but am unsure.
Ive now invested in a blackvue (dash cam) just for my own piece of mind, if they done it again with that in place i dont think i would try so hard to avoid them.
Just be careful people these scumbags are doing the old tricks again.
As much as we curse the cars at times fiat done a good job on the braking system, i dont think ive ever hit brakes that hard and was still able to easily control the car.
roy

 

[nikkiy9]

no doubt this will help loads of people out roy, glad you managed to get away with it,

 

[cris1117]

Hi.

Maybe worth informing the police before they manage to killsomeone.

 

[roy lovelock]

Hi.

Maybe worth informing the police before they manage to killsomeone.

already told a friend who is a copper, he told me he will let pass it on, but also said that they wont be intrested unless i had video footage of the incident, i would be wasting my time filling in statements.
he did say though if it happens to anyone else he would ask me to put in a witness statment to what happened to me.
if my kids had been in the car the least he would have to worry about would be me hitting the back of his car.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

remember if anyone is hurt in an accident then the police are obliged to attend , so if anything like this does happen to you make sure you call the police at the scene and don't let anyone leave until the police have arrived, and don't give any details until the police are in attendance.

 

[gerhardj]

Without running the risk of sounding stupid, but how does the scam work?

 

[custard]

Without running the risk of sounding stupid, but how does the scam work?

whiplash claims plus payout for the van

 

[dombooth]

Hi guys
i thought i would put a heads up to people driving in the south east england atm, i had the closest call ever in my driving career two nights ago at 1am.
I was driving down the A127 southend bound and had two cars following me from the mobydick pub. After a while i was a bit suspect as they made no effort to over take even when i adjusted the cruise control , they stayed there until the halfway house pub.
Then one of the cars (and old banger escort van) overtook me, i already was suspisious and was ready to pull off or brake, then he locked it up with no brake lights. The car had PL on there so if im not mistaken thats a polish plates?
The good old stilo brakes done the job and i was able to weave around, thats when i opened up the turbo to get out of there. I couldnt tell what the other car was, but i suspect it was a BMW of some sort looking at the headlight design - but am unsure.
Ive now invested in a blackvue (dash cam) just for my own piece of mind, if they done it again with that in place i dont think i would try so hard to avoid them.
Just be careful people these scumbags are doing the old tricks again.
As much as we curse the cars at times fiat done a good job on the braking system, i dont think ive ever hit brakes that hard and was still able to easily control the car.
roy

Now you've got a camera in does it record sound? If so speak out the registrations to make sure you've got them.

Dom

 

[Morty Mort]

The good old stilo brakes done the job and i was able to weave around... As much as we curse the cars at times fiat done a good job on the braking system, i dont think ive ever hit brakes that hard and was still able to easily control the car.
roy

Hail to the Stilo brakes. They are without doubt fantastic. I've tried them out several times myself.

 

[ChrisUK]

Trust me the Police are aware of this. They did the same to my collegue in his Honda Civic about a year ago. It back fired in the end as the Police checked their car (when he saif there was no brake lights) found the bulbs where on a switch so they confiscated the car. Turned out it had no Tax, MOT or insurance in any country so it was crushed (was a 56 Polish Reg Leon Cupra!!).

 

[roy lovelock]

Now you've got a camera in does it record sound? If so speak out the registrations to make sure you've got them.

Dom

It does, but its also HI Def so there is really no need, the device should be arriving in the morning.
I did check out the cheapo dash cams on fleabay and opted for a premium one
http://www.blackvue.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=8&category_id=5&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

I know its not cheap but the way i thought about it was that ive had my car broken into twice over the last few years at work - costing me my excess, then if i had impacted this **** that could have cost me much more not excluding loss of licence (this happened to a close friend of mine who hit someone in the rear).
Also it can be moved from car to car easily - the ones on ebay have lcd screens and are large making the units a target to thieves, this thing is the size of a packet of extra stong mints and hides behind the rear view mirror.

I think you will find the specs impressive i did.

 

[dombooth]

It does, but its also HI Def so there is really no need, the device should be arriving in the morning.
I did check out the cheapo dash cams on fleabay and opted for a premium one
http://www.blackvue.co.uk/index.php...&category_id=5&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

I know its not cheap but the way i thought about it was that ive had my car broken into twice over the last few years at work - costing me my excess, then if i had impacted this **** that could have cost me much more not excluding loss of licence (this happened to a close friend of mine who hit someone in the rear).
Also it can be moved from car to car easily - the ones on ebay have lcd screens and are large making the units a target to thieves, this thing is the size of a packet of extra stong mints and hides behind the rear view mirror.

I think you will find the specs impressive i did.

Yeah but I mean more for the car behind.

Dom

 

[sludgeguts]

It does, but its also HI Def so there is really no need, .

Trust me, there is every need. Even with hi def, sod's law dictates that the one pillock on the road will come at you from just the wrong angle or the light will be not quite right (I had one instance where my dipped beams were reflected off the plate & so the camera couldn't pick out the reg).
Even at 30fps, a car can often be in just the wrong place for the cam to capture every letter.

 

[sludgeguts]

the ones on ebay have lcd screens and are large making the units a target to thieves, this thing is the size of a packet of extra stong mints and hides behind the rear view mirror.

I think you will find the specs impressive i did.

Take great care when setting this up. The lack of LCD screen means that it can be hit and miss to where the lens is pointing. I have a similar device which has a button for a laser pointer - but even so, the camera isn't quite aimed at where the laser is. I used the HDMI output to plug in my lappy so the lens was pointing the right way.
I also take the speed readings of this thing with a pinch of salt as there is a delay where the unit plays catch up.

 

[roy lovelock]

well its set up and what a camera, it says 140 degrees coverage, and the built in app shows where you are, speed, gforce, and also allows you to zoom right in on the video. You can then take a snapshot!
setting it up was a doodle, you only need to tilt it down very slightly - to get this there is a blackvue written on the side so you use that to line it up.
i was going to post up some test footage on you tube but there is so much on there just look yourselves and you will see how good the camera is (search blackvue dr400 hd).
The only issue i had was it need constant supply, i ended up wiring it directly from the back of the stereo - you can choose to use the supplied cigar lighter but as we all know the stilo shuts this off when the ignition is off. When there is no supply the parking mode feature is turned off as well - the built in call is only 130mha so i assume thats just to keep the clock accurate.
roy

 

[Magic Johnson]

These b*stards need to be locked up.

Still, if you're behind a really dodgy looking car, slow right down. I always do, especially bangers. You just never know if it's road worthy or looking for a payout insurance scam.

Give yourself PLENTY of time to brake to a complete stop, so if the brake lights don't come on you still have that split second to judge that it's stopping and slam the anchors on.

This stuff riles me no end, first it was the Asian lot now the Poles, and I bet some of our lot are doing it too. Disgusting, and the insurance companies don't half encourage it. People up to this crap should spend a long time in jail, and if they aren't from our country then they should be deported and jailed. ARGH.

Rant over lol.

 

[sludgeguts]

the insurance companies don't half encourage it.

I have been saying this for a long time.
They up everyone's premiums, claiming it is not their fault but that of the millions of uninsured drivers out there & the ever increasing number of whiplash claims.

So, how about a change in the law?
Every new car HAS to be fitted with a cctv system.

Every car already on the roads HAS to be retro-fitted with a suitable recording device (with a list of approved devices ranging from, say, £40 upwards) - or available from the insurer (so the cost can be spread over the annual premium if desired).

Every forecourt MUST have ANPR (on police progs we see these reading hundreds of plates & instantly alert to no tax, MOT or insurance) which instantly alerts police & the forecourt can refuse to serve fuel.

Anyone with illegal plates (so cannot be read by ANPR) will also not get served.

Anyone walking in with a fuel can - approved cans only & maximum 5 litres fuel delivered.

And how about Car reg also being etched onto front and rear screens?

 

[dombooth]

Anyone with illegal plates (so cannot be read by ANPR) will also not get served.

The problem with this is does the cashier deserve the abuse they're going to get by not authorising the pump?

And it goes without saying that the police would have to attend, now if they get to my house 4 hours later when someone's threatened to burn my house down how long are they going to take to get to the petrol station!?

Dom

 

[sludgeguts]

The problem with this is does the cashier deserve the abuse they're going to get by not authorising the pump?

And it goes without saying that the police would have to attend, now if they get to my house 4 hours later when someone's threatened to burn my house down how long are they going to take to get to the petrol station!?

Dom

But that's down to the forecourt to change the way they do things. A lot of the Asda forecourts I've visited are card payment only, with no cashiers on hand to be abused.
I also wonder at the logic of putting a youngster behind the till - sometimes on their own - when they can take many hundreds of pounds' worth of transactions whereas a small, quiet post office gets bulletproof glass and loads of security - even for a handful of transactions per day.
Also, forecourts could display huge signs stating that they have ANPR & will not authorise fuel for any vehicle not recognised.


Interesting that they take 4 hours to come when someone threatens to burn your house down and only 90 minutes to come when a neighbour moans about a bit of engine noise at 8pm

 

[dombooth]

But that's down to the forecourt to change the way they do things. A lot of the Asda forecourts I've visited are card payment only, with no cashiers on hand to be abused.
I also wonder at the logic of putting a youngster behind the till - sometimes on their own - when they can take many hundreds of pounds' worth of transactions whereas a small, quiet post office gets bulletproof glass and loads of security - even for a handful of transactions per day.
Also, forecourts could display huge signs stating that they have ANPR & will not authorise fuel for any vehicle not recognised.


Interesting that they take 4 hours to come when someone threatens to burn your house down and only 90 minutes to come when a neighbour moans about a bit of engine noise at 8pm

Police here are generally useless idiots anyway.

Coming down the main road at 30MPH (30MPH limit..) the cop car behind was more or less up my exhaust, tit.:bang:

I think if they're going to do it they would have to install bulletproof glass etc otherwise it'd just be ridiculous.

I never pay with my card so cash only for me I'm afraid.

Dom