Fraudsters jailed for bogus insurance claims after staged accident
Fraudsters jailed for bogus insurance claims after staged accident
9 November 2022
Two people have been jailed after carrying out a staged car accident in order to lodge fraudulent insurance claims valued at $838,000.
Hamid Taoube and Miriana Khalil had earlier pleaded guilty to crimes including perjury and making false statements to obtain financial advantage, and were sentenced at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court last month.
Taoube was jailed for 20 months, and Khalil 25 months. Two further offenders, who were minors at the time of the accident, were given Intensive Correction Orders including community service for perjury offences.
NSW’s State Insurance Regulatory Authority says on its website that the four were prosecuted by the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions following a police investigation into insurance claims arising from a motor vehicle accident at Canley Heights in 2013.
The car in which they were all travelling collided with the rear of a parked van.
Taoube, who was the driver of the car, alleged the accident was caused by an oncoming motor vehicle he swerved to avoid, and that at the time he was driving at around 40kmh.
The car Taoube was driving was badly damaged and the passengers – including the minors – were injured.
The parked van was not substantially damaged and was not pushed forward as a result of the impact.
Claims were lodged with NRMA Insurance in relation to Khalil and the minors with a potential total value of $838,000. The insurers later commenced civil proceedings against Taoube.
Expert witnesses engaged to provide evidence on the circumstances of the accident in the civil proceedings unanimously agreed that the pattern of damage of the front of the vehicle in which the plaintiffs were travelling could not have occurred in this crash.
Criminal charges arose from police investigations into the submission of the claims, statements given to insurers, and evidence given under oath in the civil proceedings.
The offenders have the right to appeal against their sentences.
