Dame Siobhain McDonagh was driving along a residential south London street when ‘out of nowhere’ she was overtaken by a man on a moped that stopped right in front of her, forcing her to slam on the brakes.
She avoided hitting him but that was just the start of the drama for the MP for Mitcham and Morden.
‘Immediately, the driver dropped the moped and began to shout and point at me,’ she said. ‘I was absolutely confused because I knew I had done no damage to his moped and he was not hurt in any way.
‘I just did not understand what was going on. He dragged me over, took my details and took photographs of me, of my car.’
Despite the fact that there had been no collision, she later received a letter from a solicitor demanding ‘large amounts of money’ to pay for his replacement bike, she said.
Only later, when she met a constituent who described a similar occurrence, did she realise that she was one of tens of thousands of victims of ‘cash-for-crash’ frauds terrorising motorists.
Reckless: Moped scammers are deliberately crashing into vehicles with lone women or mums on the school run behind the wheel, before making a false insurance claims
An undercover Mail investigation has now pieced together the extraordinary network behind this ruthless scam, which involves driving into cars – usually vehicles with lone women, pensioners or mums on the school run behind the wheel – and then demanding insurance details before making a false claim against their victims.
Industry sources say these frauds rocketed 60-fold last year and are believed to be costing more than £100 million annually.
At the sharp end of this trend are some of the garages that repair the ‘damaged’ mopeds.
We found that rogue operators were happy for moped drivers to make claims for non-existent damage or injuries and then take a slice of the proceeds when reputable insurance firms make payouts on behalf of innocent motorists.
Scammers can pocket a ‘bonus’ of up to £1,200 from garages for making the claims – including a top-up if they claim they were hurt.
A garage benefits from commission paid by accident management companies it recommends the driver uses.
Our investigation also found:
- Many claimants are fast-food delivery drivers originally from Brazil who call themselves ‘motorboys’. Some garages claim that immigration status will not be an issue by promising there will be no such checks during claims, with one saying: ‘If you are legal or if you are a terrorist, it’s no problem.’
- The scam is an open secret among motorboys, who call repeat offenders (often using multiple names in multiple claims) ‘stuntmen’.
- Garages advertise ‘super, super bonuses’ for accident claims on their social media pages, with some featuring videos of successful claimants waving wads of cash or weighed down with bulging bags of money.
The scam is so well known that a Mail journalist who asked random motorboys in London about it was immediately given a crash course in how it works.
They described how the ‘stuntmen’ stage accidents with unsuspecting motorists before making insurance claims that invent or exaggerate the damage done to their bike and themselves.
They keep their helmets on to avoid identification even after the ‘accident’ and often work in teams.
A van may be strategically parked at a junction to block a motorist’s view, so that when they pull out they cannot see the oncoming moped until the last second.
Sometimes an accomplice will turn up seconds after the impact to help intimidate the car driver into handing over their insurance details.
Interior designer Helen Harris has first-hand experience of just how traumatic such an encounter can be.
She became a victim of the motorboys after a moped driver flashed his lights to let her turn right into a busy south London street.
As soon as she pulled out, however, that driver sped off and a second moped careered into the wheel arch of her front driver door.
Despite barely making contact, the driver, who kept his helmet on, ‘started shaking his hands like his wrists were hurting’, she said.
There was no damage to either vehicle, but a solicitor acting for the moped driver claimed £2,667.70 from her insurer and Ms Harris had her no claims bonus put on hold and faced higher premiums. ‘I am furious,’ she said. ‘I feel hoodwinked and stupid.’
Another lone woman driver described how a motorbike accelerated into her as she turned into a major road in Battersea, south-west London.
‘He came straight down the middle of the road, and obviously would have seen me but only braked at the last moment,’ she recalls.
‘After the collision, he jumped off his motorbike, put it on the floor and started sort of jumping around taking photos. I had no idea what was going on. He couldn’t speak English and had to use Google Translate to ask me to hand over my insurance details.’
Social media: Garages advertise ‘super, super bonuses’ for accident claims, with some featuring videos of successful claimants waving wads of cash
He did not give his name but, after she gave his mobile number to a south London group monitoring the scam, she discovered it had been used several times previously in suspected cash-for-crash scams.
The motorboys we spoke to were appalled by what they called a ‘cowardly’ scam, but said for many of them who usually live in overcrowded shared houses earning around £500 a week, it offered an all-too-easy way to make quick cash.
Crucially, they said, the frauds were fuelled by garages offering bonuses for drivers making accident claims that would be handled by major claims management companies.
The sums per claim were worth up to three weeks’ regular work for a motorboy, which was enough to encourage many of those initially unwilling to take part in the scams to set aside their reservations.
The motorboys we spoke to were too scared to name the garages involved for fear of reprisals, with one explaining: ‘It’s the same as talking about drug trafficking. It’s very sensitive.’
But after a simple internet search, the Mail found 16 motorcycle garages that specialise in accident claims in notorious cash-for-crash hotspots advertising bonuses on their open social media pages.
At least four are known to have been used by drivers making a suspected cash-for-crash claim.
When we approached the garages posing as a driver, a representative of Brazuka Motors, which offered services across London and the Home Counties, told the reporter that in order to get the full £1,000 advertised bonus he would have to say he was hurt.
Asked what evidence was required, he responded: ‘There’s no proof, man. At the most, they’ll ask for a picture.’
Later, he added: ‘After I register your claim, they call and ask, “Explain to me how it happened.” Then what are you going to say? “Oh that guy reversed on me when I was on my motorbike.”
‘Then they will ask, “Did you suffer an injury?” “Yeah I hurt my leg. It’s all twisted.”
‘You don’t need to say you broke it, but you can say you’re finding it difficult to walk, you hurt your leg, so you say you want to still do the medical part. That’s all you need.’
OImperio Motorcycles in South Croydon went further, explaining: ‘Even if you didn’t get hurt . . . when the company calls you if you tell them, “Look, I got hurt, my arm and leg,” then, with the injury, I pay £1,000 as a bonus.’
He added: ‘You don’t need to go to the doctor. You don’t need to go to the hospital.’
When the reporter asked: ‘Does my motorbike need to be scratched?’ he replied: ‘No, no, no. It doesn’t need to be scratched, it doesn’t need to be anything.’
Another garage, which advertised a ‘special bonus of £1,100’ for accident claims, told us: ‘Dude, with injuries we’re paying the price you saw there. No injuries, £800.’
But he told us no proof of injury was required and, as long as the driver ‘got dizzy’ or was ‘shaking’ at the time of the accident, they could lock in the claim.
Cash for crash: Scammers can pocket a ‘bonus’ of up to £1,200 from garages for making the claims – including a top-up if they claim they were hurt
One garage also told us it was ‘no problem’ if there wasn’t any sign of crash damage on the bike, explaining: ‘We will find a little way.’
All the garages offering bonuses worked with – or told the reporter their claim would be made with – McAms, one of the UK’s largest management claims companies.
Some said they also used other claims companies, but one said bonuses would only be paid if the driver’s claim was made with McAms.
In many cases, the garages said that these bonuses are paid as soon as McAms accepted the claim and they provided a replacement bike while it was being processed.
One garage, which pays a £1,000 bonus for successful claims if they include an injury, boasts online of having contributed to more than 1,500 successful claims with its ‘long-term claims management partner McAms’.
Another, which advertises the ‘best bonus in the UK’ alongside a Union Jack, also told our reporter it pays £1,000 for successful claims for non-fault accidents that include personal injury.
In one video of the garage owner with a happy claimant, he says: ‘One more claim approved by McAms . . . It’s popping off. More than ten claims approved this week at our garage.’
Liverpool-based McAms is run by barrister Alan Sellers, an expert in personal injury and credit hire cases, who is executive chairman of its parent company, Anexo.
His wife, fellow personal injury specialist and part-time competitive showjumper Samantha Moss, is also an Anexo director and runs McAms’ sister solicitor’s firm, Bond Turner, which deals with all claims made through McAms.
Anexo offers a one-stop shop for moped drivers who are involved in no-fault accidents but don’t have the means to take action by providing all legal services and a replacement bike while the insurance claim is being processed.
The company says it relies on a network of introducer garages for marketing and recommendation of services and pays commission for successful claims.
It offers partner garages a team of ‘dedicated support managers’ and Portuguese-speaking staff to help claimants.
While Anexo provides several non-accident claims services, the company says that is ‘heavily weighted towards’ leasing replacement vehicles to people who have been involved in non-fault incidents while claims are processed.
It says it charges ‘significantly’ higher rates for these than traditional hire companies and in total made profits of £23 million in 2023.
In some cases, where claims are disputed and have gone on for over six months, the hire fees have hit more than £50,000 for mopeds which are only worth around £3,000 new.
The company also deals with any personal injury claims resulting from their clients’ accidents. Indeed, it says these are now part of ‘most’ cases Bond Turner handles.
Because most of its clients are broke, the company’s business model relies on it recovering all costs from the at-fault party’s insurer. In 2023, it successfully settled 9,000 cases.
Ms Moss said the high bike lease rates are justified because of the extra risk and extra costs the company assumes when it takes on clients with little or no money, and several court judgments have backed the company’s position.
She said the company ‘routinely and consistently’ recovered hire charges by making ‘well timed and reasonable’ settlement offers with insurers.
Its legitimate success in dominating the moped accident management market means many suspected cash-for-crash fraudsters inevitably try to make claims via McAms and the Anexo group.
A database set up by victims of the fraud in south-west London found that, of the 79 incidents where people shared details of the claims management company involved, 72 were being processed by McAms or other companies within the Anexo Group.
Ms Moss said it was investigating the Mail’s ‘shocking and extremely concerning’ allegations that garages allowed fraudulent claims, something it claims it ‘works hard to prevent’. Ms Moss said it had ‘every interest’ in avoiding them as they were hugely damaging for the company.
She said the company would immediately cease to deal with any garage found to be involved in fraudulent claims and had already terminated dealings with some after being contacted by the Mail.
McAms rejects over half of the claims requests it receives and undertakes paper and electronic ID checks for all clients, she added.
Back on the street, the motorboys – whose own insurance is rocketing because of the scams – warn that things are rapidly getting worse.
‘It’s moving beyond Brazilians now, with other groups getting involved, and to all parts of the country,’ one said.
‘When there’s so much money to be made so quickly and easily and so few people stopping it, what do you expect?’
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