‘If you get seven and a half grand... happy days’
What happened when undercover reporter Amy Molloy attended solicitors and GPs after filling out a form on a claims harvesting website
‘Insurers just want to throw money at you...’
ASOLICITOR told an undercover reporter “you’re still worth 10 grand” after she said she felt OK following a rear-ending accident, adding: “If you get seven-and-a-half grand into your hand after all expenses… that’s happy days.”
The reporter came into contact with a number of solicitors and medical professionals after filling out an assessment form on a claims harvesting website.
This site asked for the reporter’s name, number and a brief description of the accident.
She then received a call back from a number of solicitors, who all told her over the phone they would arrange for her to go to named medical professionals to have a medical report prepared.
The reporter then presented herself to some of these as a walk-in patient.
One GP asked her, “Have you been to a solicitor?” when she said she was in a rear-ending accident.
The senior GP then recommended two solicitor firms during the medical consultation. One of the firms recommended had already contacted the reporter through the claims harvesting website.
The GP told the reporter she would get money if she brought a claim for whiplash and her case likely wouldn’t go to court as “insurers just want to settle.”
She said her neck was sore after her car was rear-ended while driving. The reporter said there was a bit of damage done to the car and she didn’t think anything was wrong, but her neck started to feel sore shortly afterwards.
The GP diagnosed her as having whiplash after asking her to do some neck stretches, issued a sick cert and told her she would be entitled to compensation if she brought a claim.
Two weeks later, the reporter attended a second consultation with the same GP which was set up by a solicitor the GP had previously recommended.
The physical examination lasted less than 40 seconds.
The GP said it would “probably be best not to” include in the medical report that she suffered from back and neck stiffness before the rear-ending accident if this health issue hadn’t been subject of a previ
‘You say, ‘my back is still sore, doctor...’ it’s very good on paper’
ous claim. “It’s probably best to, erm… One of the questions on this is whether you’ve had previous trouble with your back and neck or your neck particularly if you’re making a claim, they will want to know whether it’s an exacerbation of a previous problem or whether it’s a new problem,” the doctor said.
The reporter then asked: “Which one gets more money?”
The doctor responded: “I don’t know really, I don’t think it makes much difference.
“What you have to be careful of is if you have had trouble which has been documented by a GP previously and you’ve had investigations and treatments done with your GP or hospital doctor and you don’t declare it that can land you in trouble as they’ll say it’s not due to the accident.
“In your case where you’ve had back stiffness, it’s probably best to leave it out in other words not to declare it as it’s not been documented with a previous GP, or it hasn’t been the subject of a previous claim, do you get what I’m saying?
“Lots of people have a bit of back trouble,” they added.
The doctor also told her the whiplash claim likely wouldn’t go to court as “insurers don’t want the hassle”.
During a consultation with the solicitor who recommended the reporter to this GP, he described his relationship with the doctor as “completely independent”.
“We don’t have any specific relationship with [redacted], we don’t pay [redacted] anything extra, in fact [redacted] gives it to us for a lot less because we push a lot of clients their way and it’s a lot faster, so it’s not like we pay them extra to say things, we don’t.”
The solicitor also told the reporter it “looks very good on paper for me” if she went to the doctor again five months after an accident. “If you got your GP to give you a check-up, you say ‘my back is still sore, doctor, I’ve had this accident in March, it is now September’, it’s very good on paper.
“That’s all I’d say about that, it’s good on paper. It helps me to get to the next level, do you understand what I’m saying?”
When the reporter asked what would happen if a doctor examined her and she felt fine, the solicitor said: “Well then you’re fully recovered… You’re still worth 10 grand though. It’s a no brainer.”
He added that “insurers just want to throw money at you” and said they only investigate suspicious claims.
“You’re not at risk, it’s a genuine case. We wouldn’t take it on if we thought it was fraudulent because it gives us all a bad name,” he said.
“We only represent genuine clients.”