AN INDIAN-origin former Metropolitan Police officer has been jailed for four years and five months after admitting his part in a "crash for cash" scam that saw pre-arranged collisions staged to extract fraudulent compensation from insurance companies.
Kuldip Singh, 42, was a serving Met officer when he became involved with a group that orchestrated deliberate crashes and submitted false personal injury and vehicle damage claims. He was sentenced on Friday and also disqualified from acting as a company director for five years.
Busola Johnson, specialist prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime Division, said Singh's conduct amounted to a serious breach of public trust. "Kuldip Singh was a serving police officer when he chose to involve himself in a corrupt scam that saw fraudulent insurance claims made after pre-arranged crashes," she said. "This was not a momentary lapse of judgement but a sustained pattern of calculated dishonesty, carried out for financial gain and designed to deceive insurers, employers and the justice system itself."
She added: "The public are entitled to expect the highest standards from those entrusted with enforcing the law, and Kuldip Singh's actions represented a serious betrayal of that trust and caused significant financial harm."
In April, Singh pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud by false representation, two counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, two counts of perverting the course of justice, and unauthorised access to a computer to facilitate further offences.
One incident detailed by the CPS dates back to March 2016, when Raiyaan Anwar, then a 32-year-old Tesco delivery driver, drove his van into the back of a white Citroen driven by Singh. Singh's four passengers were all involved in the scam. Anwar admitted liability to Tesco but did not disclose that he knew the car's occupants. The crash led to five fraudulent personal injury claims totalling £33,362, of which £912 was paid out.
Singh also co-ran a car hire company, ADK Supreme, with 55-year-old Alper Emin, leasing high-value vehicles to customers who would likely have been unable to finance them independently. When a client crashed a rented Mercedes, Singh and Emin falsely claimed the company had been burgled and the car's key stolen — a burglary the court heard never took place. Singh then submitted a false insurance claim and received £16,145.
The CPS said three further vehicles leased by ADK Supreme were involved in collisions or traffic violations, with Singh falsely claiming the cars had been cloned to avoid liability. He went further in one case, creating a fabricated police report alleging a leased car had been cloned and persuading a police staff member to log the false entry on the police database.
Singh was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police Service without notice on 23 November 2017 for gross misconduct. He then fled the UK along with the other men involved, before being extradited from Georgia in March this year.
His co-accused — Anwar, Emin, Krishna Gnanaseelan, 31, and Singh Dehal, 31 — have been prosecuted in their absence and remain at large.
