Beware; we have modern-day “Dick Turpins’” at work on our roads, not quite “Stand and deliver” at gun point, but there’s a striking similarity.

Innocent drivers are being targeted in this frightening new crime which appears to spreading across the country. The drivers are ambushed into a situation they have no control over.

It goes like this:

You may be following a vehicle, generally an ageing car or van, onto a roundabout or slip road. This vehicle, which often has no brake lights, brakes hard and you cannot avoid slamming into it.

There might be more than one car involved. The car in front of you might brake sharply because the second car pulls into its path on purpose.

If you have been a victim of these criminals and they are brought to justice, you can use a compensation lawyer to claim back your losses and incurred expenses.

For the most part, these set-ups occur at busy roundabouts and slip roads. The instigators of these incidents are skilled at pinning the blame on the innocent motorist. These modern day highwaymen work in teams, owning and managing repair garages and car hire companies. They charge over the odds prices for repair work and hire car costs. Then they will claim for compensation on the innocent motorist’s insurance which costs the innocent even more money. Often the vehicle which they use is an old banger, which will probably contain the maximum number of passengers, all claiming to have been injured in some way and seeking compensation for this and probably loss of earning too.   In this way a minor accident claim can escalate into a claim of £20,000 or more.

Insurers are quite rightly extremely concerned about the scale of these so called “accidents” and believe there could be as many as 10,000 of them occurring per year. With this in mind the Association of British Insurers have created an Insurance Fraud Bureau. They work to find these gangs so that they can be prosecuted by the police.

These organized crime rings put motorists and passengers at risk everyday. It is vitally important that insurers and drivers work together in a concerted effort to stop this crime.