It was most definitely a case of ‘the camera never lies’, when an engineer was yesterday jailed for insurance fraud.
David Ribchester, 31, an engineer from Washington, Tyne and Wear, suffered an injury during a workplace accident and submitted a claim for £923,000. As is often the case, the insurers representing the defendant covertly filmed Mr Ribchester, and obtained footage showing him playing rugby, driving and carrying shopping. Presumably, these were all activities he was claiming he was unable to do due to his injuries.
The Old Bailey, who jailed Mr Ribchester for eight months, was told that he had suffered genuine injuries, but had ‘got carried away’ with his claim.
I do not know the details of Mr Ribchester’s personal injury claim. I have no idea how badly he was injured. What I do know however, is that fraud of this type is being closely targeted by insurers dealing with these types of claims, and that they will do all in their power to uncover such frauds, and if necessary, bring a criminal prosecution as a warning to others.
Covert surveillance is common place, even in low value claims. In addition to which, insurers trawl Facebook and other social media networks, again for evidence of fraud.
An eight month jail sentence is a hefty price to pay, for simply getting carried away and is a clear signal to other injured claimants, if you embellish your claim, you will be pursued for fraud.
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