I was scammed in late 2009 by a **** in Manchester. It took over a year to play out though.
Sorry for the length of this - it's a long story as short as possible...
The lad who ripped me off had his friend in a car ahead of me.
He had stopped on the road and the scammer was stood on the other side of the road, talking to his friend through the driver's window. Between them they were blocking both lanes of traffic.
The lad on foot then slowly turned around, looking at the lead cars in both lanes. Obviously picking the victim. I don't know what was on the other side, but I'm in a Jag so he picks me.
His friend drives off, he walks across me to the left of me and waves me forward.
I drove off, slowly.
Straight away he hit my car with a plastic drinks bottle in his hand and spun around shouting "you f'ing hit me. pull over, pull over".
I pulled over and got out of the car. Straight away his was really aggressive and suggested we could "sort this out here and now". ie, I could pay him off.
I refused and said I was going to call the local police (not 999). I knew it was a scam.
He was in my face, a big lad, saying "go on, phone them..." so I did. He then got on to the phone to his mates who turned up in seconds and got out threatening to kill me (literally "what are you doing around here? don't you come to my area. I'll f'ing kill you" and chasing me across the road away from my own car - btw I'd lived in this specific area for 15 years or so, and in the general area all my life, he was about 20).
The police hadn't turned up so at this stage I called 999. I was seriously in fear for my life at this stage.
Still nothing.
20 minutes later I called them AGAIN.
Eventually I could hear a siren and a police van came up the street. His friends jumped in their car and drove off just leaving the two of us.
He feigned injury but didn't have a mark on him (my car didn't touch him! He hit my car with the plastic bottle!).
The police told me they could tell he was dodgy.
He then went to a no-win no-fee company who advertise on TV and put in a claim. Months later I got a letter from them.
The claim included a visit to A&E (literally 2 minutes walk from the incident btw) which said there were no visible marks but language that said "the patient says he was hit by a car" and "the patient says he has pain in his arm".
He paid a private doctor to say the same thing months after the incident! That report said there were no marks on him but "he said" he had been hit etc.
The solicitors that my insurance company employed didn't even look into the guy properly, they had his name wrong and said they could find nothing on him...
So I did the search properly and found he sold "cheap" designer brands online etc. Ok, not proof of the incident being a scam, but it shows his character.
The upshot was my insurance company settled it despite my full co-operation because they said it was 50/50 and they can't justify paying the legal costs. I told them I was prepared to go to court to defend myself.
They said he had a visit to A&E logged and said that would make it look genuine (even though it involved walking 2 minutes down the road to the hospital AND the fact the A&E report said there were no marks or blood on him).
They also said he had a doctor's report. Even though that also had no evidence of injury at all and was simply a paid-for private report. But it had the signature of a doctor on it! Ker-ching.
The barrister even had the cheek to say it was the insurance companies profit that I was asking them to spend to defend me and I should understand why they would rather settle it than pay! Hang on, that's exactly WHY I pay them. Profit is what's left over when they've done their job, not before!
They asked me to sign a form to agree to the settlement. I refused.
They said ok, we don't need you to sign it anyway, we're just being polite. They settled. My insurance has gone up. If I go elsewhere I have to admit to the claim against me.
All I was doing was going about my lawful business. I get dragged into this scam because I have a nice car. I have my life threatened. I go through a year of hell and end up with massively increased insurance.
The conman got a nice pay out. The solicitor my insurance company used was paid handsomely for "helping" me. The barrister they consulted was paid handsomely for "helping me". My insurance company takes a fortune off me, and you, to help cover it.
The only loser is me and the rest of us paying for this shit.
It was the final straw for me in that shitty country. I've moved abroad.
