19/03/13
By Catherine Bell
A group of 60 fraudsters have been involved in a major scam to make money out of faking car crashes.
The offenders have either pleaded guilty or been convicted by jurors of their part in the criminal activities. The fraud was mainly centred on Derwentside in County Durham and the number of fake claims of crashes in the area led to residents being charged up to £100 more for their car insurance.
Police were looking into the actions of members of the Wright family, who live in Burnhope, when they discovered the extent of the scam. The Wrights hit the headlines four years ago when police renamed two streets which the notorious family had named after themselves.
Officers launched Operation Nacho to look into the family's activity, fearing they were behind organised crime in the Burnhope area. Working with the Insurance Fraud Bureau as well as other agencies, the police studied insurance claims relating to 1,800 accidents and picked out 261 which they believed could potentially be false.
Those working on the investigation believed the claims could either be completely made up, majorly exaggerated or staged to try and make money from insurance firms.
A total of 25 crashes were selected to be looked into in more detail as they were highly suspicious and had seen claimants receive more than £514,000 in pay-outs. And the scam is believed to have involved more than £3 million of false claims in all.
In 2012 a total of 70 people charged with being involved in the 'cash for crash' scam were taken to Newcastle Crown Court for a series of trials. And 60 of them either admitted their involvement or were convicted after a trial.
The group included seven members of the Wright family. Up until now reporting restrictions had prevented the court cases from being covered by the media but the order was lifted by Judge Roger Thorn allowing the full scale of the criminal activities to be revealed.
One of the principal members of the gang was Jonathon Wright, known as Jonty, who had a business recovering, hiring and storing vehicles known as PJ Autos. The 40-year-old is still waiting to be sentenced for making false insurance claims of up to £200 a day for storing damaged cars and hiring out replacements.
His elder brother Alan Wright, 49, who was considered to be the head of the family was convicted after a trial last year and sentenced to four years in prison. He was found guilty of lying about being involved in four fake crashes over a 10-month period.
And another Wright family member staged a car crash in Burnhope using an Audi, claiming the car was written off by the accident. The vehicle had been bought with a mileage of 112,000 but the insurance company was told it had just 37,000 miles on the clock so they would pay more for the vehicle. The claimant also pretended to suffer from whiplash as a result of the accident.
Officers working on the investigation drafted in a forensic engineer to help them who was able to prove a crash reported between a lorry and a car in Burnhope could not actually have happened.
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