My folks have received a letter from an insurance company claiming their car was involved in an accident about 2 weeks ago.

Seems to be genuine company (they checked with their own insurers) who now want to send someone out to inspect their car. All they have supplied is the time and approximate location of the alleged accident and the other persons name. My Dad, who was probably driving the car at the time, has no recollection of any incident and there is no damage to his car.

I’ve told them to refuse any inspection without being supplied with more details and even then, they should probably get advice before doing anything.

It all sounds get dodgy to me and wondered has anyone had similar experience or advice to share?

Thanks in advance

Cloned number plate?

have the supplied an approximate location and time ? were your parents anywhere near ?

or someone just wrote down the wrong number plate….

I did a couple of years ago although it was the police who approached me with a NIP claiming I’d hit someones wing mirror and caused a load of damage.

It was a bloody nightmare trying to prove a negative (that I hadn’t done it), but I did get there in the end.

Things to consider are:
1. Reporting the approach to the police – this may backfire though, if they decide the claim is true and opt to charge your dad with a driving offence e.g. careless driving – or whatever the official term is. It becomes difficult because being unable to recollect the incident, can work in the police’s favour.

2. Get an independent damage report done by a local garage. It cost me £50 but stated that there was no damage, or any signs of a repair. It’s a ball ache, but I think this was the thing that finally persuaded plod that I wasn’t to blame.

Good luck

Oh and of course you should ring the insurance company asking to do the inspection independently – it could well be a scam.

Happened to me aaaaaagggeess ago, I wrote to my insurance company explaining where I was at the time date ( easy for me at the time I was at work, car in works CP, in northants not diving down some a-road in Yorkshire) , and heard nothing more

Cloned number plate?

My assumption at the time

My mum had the same last year.
Not sure whether they ever got to the bottom of it being a cloned plate or someone written down wrongly but the description was blue Ford Mondeo, number plate AA02 BCD.

My Mum sent them a photo of her car (silver Nissan) and nothing more was ever heard of it.

Cloned number plate?

^This.

Thanks all.

TR – no exact location but North Deeside Road, Bieldside area. They can’t remember exactly but it’s possible my Dad was on his way home from the golf club around that time……. and before anyone asks, he doesn’t drink other than a glass of wine in the evening!

A similar thing happened to a former colleague’s 80 odd year old father a couple of years ago.

Four young girls claimed that he had driven into the back of the car they were in. He said that he hadn’t and there was no damage to his car to suggest otherwise.

Apparently the insurance company paid the girls out a nominal amount because it wasn’t worth fighting the case. They suspected that the girls had just seen an elderly gentleman driving about minding his own business, taken his number plate details and phoned in with a scam claim.

Sadly it knocked the old boy’s confidence so much that he gave up driving.

Some people, to quote Withnail, are terrible #####.

HTS that’s the first thing that crossed my mind too. My Dad might be getting on a bit but his driving is still good and he would certainly know if he’d been in an accident. He also wouldn’t have been parking in the area, so no possibility of a that sort of bump.

I’ll update with any developments.

Update

Insurance Inspector came a few days after my first post and checked the car. Didn’t say much other than it was in good condition for its age (2007). He said they would hear in a couple of days from the insurers but so far not a word and it’s getting on for 4 weeks now.

Would I be right in thinking that they have nothing to be concerned about, as presumably if there had been any ‘evidence’ they would have been into it immediately?

Pass all the information on to your own insurance company along with a statement saying you know nothing about any accident and let them sort it out.

Get your insurance involved asap.
We had this a couple of years back. The other insurance company were very aggressive, despite our reg. no. From bright blue Vw people carrier supposedly on a red laguna estate 350miles away from where we had bought a parking ticket 10mins earlier.. .. We still had 5 months of insurance faffage.

Happened to me, I have a thread on it, but slightly different in that they staged an accident that didnt happen! I told the insurers to expect a claim to be put in from me with the offending vehicle being their MD’s! Got dropped that day strangely!