Three High Wycombe taxi drivers who made false claims that another driver had caused a crash have been convicted of fraud.

Jawed Iqbal made a £63,000 personal injury claim alleging that another driver had caused a crash, despite the other driver protesting that their vehicle had been parked and unattended at the time of the alleged incident.

The claim included signed witness statements from fellow High Wycombe taxi drivers Mr Muhammad Naheem and Mr Qasim Iqbal confirming Mr Iqbal’s story.

But they were caught out by CCTV analysis, which proved they had lied - and Mr Iqbal withdrew his claim for cash.

Specialist motor insurer ERS - whose client was the person accused - pursued a private prosecution for fraud by misrepresentation.

Mr Iqbal received an 18-month suspended prison sentence and the two witnesses each received a community order. All three parties have lost their taxi licences as a result of their convictions.

ERS’ Claims Manager said in a statement: “ERS has a zero-tolerance for fraud.

“We do everything we can to detect fraud and discourage fraudulent behaviour by taking tough action against perpetrators.

"Even though Mr Iqbal withdrew his claim when presented with our evidence, we took the decision that his attempt to commit fraud was so serious that we had no choice but to pursue a criminal prosecution.”

They added: "Many people think that insurance fraud is a victimless crime, but there are significant knock-on impacts. Fraudulent claims have a mental and financial impact to the other party, they increase insurance premiums for other drivers and decrease the performance of our broker’s business.

"In this case, the deception and misrepresentation of events and signing of false witness statements is an act of wilful deception, and we hope that this successful prosecution will encourage other insurers to take similar action and protect customers and brokers.”