Major crash-for-cash racket

AFTER four years of investigation, one of the biggest-ever fraud scams in the UK has finally come to an end.

In total, Gwent Police have prosecuted 158 people for their roles in faking car crashes and making false insurance claims across South Wales.

The scam was exposed by the fraudsters’ own garage CCTV footage, which showed them driving a Land Rover into the back of a forklift truck to make it look as though the car had been in an accident.

It all centred on a repair garage called Easifix, which had also been known as St David’s Crash Repair, in Pengam, Blackwood, run by the Yandell family.

They conspired with a network of friends and relatives to stage accidents and exaggerated claims in an attempt to fraudulently claim thousands of pounds from multiple insurers.

They purposely crashed vehicles into each other in order to submit claims in an attempt to increase payouts for vehicle damage and personal injury.

A huge investigation was launched by the Insurance Fraud Bureau and Gwent Police.

It was one of the largest investigations into car insurance fraud in the UK, known as Operation Dino.

Due to the number of people involved, a series of trials was held. The original case concluded in 2015, with 81 people prosecuted for roles in staging accidents involving 57 different vehicles.

Since then there have been further court cases.

In the first wave of prosecutions, the 81 fraudsters received 601 months in jail. The second phase concluded in June 2018, and covered additional insurance claims linked to the original investigation, resulting in 96 convictions for 77 defendants.

Byron Yandell, 32, his father, Peter Yandell, 53, and wife, Rachel Yandell, 31, along with Gavin Yandell, 31, and Michelle Yandell, 52, were all jailed for between two and six years for the racket in 2015.

Police uncovered evidence that the group were purposely crashing vehicles into each other in order to submit exaggerated and falsified claims in an attempt to increase payouts for vehicle damage and personal injury.

They also made money from insurance companies by claiming they had hired out courtesy cars.

A number of claims were made to insurance companies and they also hired courtesy cars – for which they were reimbursed.

In one incident, Rachel Yandell apparently had a crash in May 2011, and was given a courtesy car by Easifix.

The business was reimbursed for the hire of that car, getting £5,700, but records showed it was also hired to a second driver, for which the business got £800.

At that time, CCTV showed that car having to be pushed around the yard and it didn’t even start.

However, having not had the original crash, “she didn’t need another car in the first place”. In another count, the prosecution says an innocent woman was found at fault for an incident in the car park of Morrison’s in Blackwood. The independent wit-