Description
The Defendant had claimed to be a passenger in a car involved in a road traffic accident in January 2009 and sought compensation for whiplash. The insurance company paid him £33,000 in compensation however it later emerged that the collision had not occurred and the Defendant was found guilty of a single count of fraud. The Defendant was sentenced to 15 months in prison and appealed the sentence to the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal held that the sentence was justified as a deterrent due to the prevalence of such offences and to signify that they would not be tolerated by the courts. The claim had been maintained for over a year and therefore the fraud had been maintained for a significant length of time.
