Thursday, August 13, 2015

'wicked and dangerous' cash for crash scam - but driver walks free from court after judge refuses to separate her from disabled daughter

  • On-board video shows staged accident as car crashed into back of Audi
  • Scam driver was mother-of-three Alina Khan from Oldham
  • Judge Angela Nield admitted Khan's offence usually merited a spell in jail
A dashcam uncovered a 'crash for cash' scam which led to three fraudsters being captured.

The on-board footage showed the moment a car crashed into the back of a vehicle driven by a rogue motorist who slammed on her brakes in a staged 'accident'.

The scam driver, mother-of-three Alina Khan, appeared for sentencing today but walked free from court after a judge ruled it was not in the public interest to separate her from her profoundly disabled daughter.

The video shows a green vehicle, with a dashcam, travelling behind a silver Audi, driven by Khan in a fake emergency stop.

 The Audi suddenly brakes, with the green car crashing into the back of it. 

Judge Angela Nield told Khan, from Oldham, she had committed a 'wicked and dangerous' act which usually merited an immediate custodial term.

But the judge said she could suspend the sentence after reviewing medical evidence involving her daughter.

Mother-of-three Alina Khan, pictured, appeared for sentencing today but walked free from court after a judge ruled it was not in the public interest to separate her from her profoundly disabled daughter
Mother-of-three Alina Khan, pictured, appeared for sentencing today but walked free from court after a judge ruled it was not in the public interest to separate her from her profoundly disabled daughter

Khan breached the terms of another suspended sentence given to her in 2010 for benefit fraud when she committed her latest offence.

Julian Goode, prosecuting, told Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court that Khan was driving a silver Audi in front of a Vauxhall Corsa in Chester Road, Hulme, Manchester, on June 9, 2011.

He said: 'At some stage this defendant slammed on in what appeared to be an emergency stop. There appeared to be absolutely no reason or justification for that happening.'

The victim's vehicle was fitted with a dashboard camera - readily available in high street stores.
The incident was passed to fraud investigators after Khan's co-defendant Kamran Yasin, 32, gave details of the crash to accident management firm boss Sarfaraz Ahmed, 31, who put in a fraudulent claim for up to £30,000 damages to insurers LV= (Liverpool Victoria).

Martin Callery, defending Khan, described the scam as a 'single isolated incident'.
He said: 'She was prevailed upon to drive this car in this way and prevailed upon by some significance.'

He argued for a suspended jail term as Khan, who is 33 weeks pregnant with her fourth child, was the only person at present capable of caring for her disabled daughter.

The defendant's husband worked away 'almost exclusively', the court also heard.

Judge Nield said the accident 'could have led to untold misery' to the innocent driver and paradoxically, the defendant.

She said: 'The fact there was a camera inside the vehicle was a matter of good fortune for the driver of that vehicle and the course of justice in this case.'

She said there was no evidence the defendant was part of an organised team which regularly set up such accidents.

Labelling the case as 'unusual', she said that after reviewing the medical evidence on Khan's young child she concluded 'as a judge who has regularly sat in the family court, this is one of the most profoundly disabled children it has ever been my misfortune to read about'.

She said that Social Services had indicated they did not immediately have foster carers sufficiently skilled to look after the defendant's daughter.

Kamran Yasin, also from Oldham, admitted the same offence, will be sentenced next month
The incident was passed to fraud investigators after Khan's co-defendant Kamran Yasin, 32, gave details of the crash to accident management firm boss Sarfaraz Ahmed, 31, who put in a fraudulent claim for up to £30,000 damages to insurers LV= (Liverpool Victoria)
Kamran Yasin, of Brook Lane, Oldham, and Sarfaraz Ahmed, of Cambridge Road, Oldham, who both admitted the same offence, will be sentenced next month

Judge Nield said: 'The public interest is undoubtedly served on the face of it by an immediate custodial sentence, however, the public interest is also balanced in a case of this importance and it is balanced in this case in the monetary and, perhaps more importantly, the emotional terms of being placed in custody.'

She said training foster carers would add to the public purse ahead of what would be in any event 'a relatively short custodial term'.

Khan, of Eric Street, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation at an earlier hearing.
She received 14 months in jail, suspended for two years, and will be supervised by the Probation Service for six months.

Yasin, of Brook Lane, Oldham, and Ahmed, of Cambridge Road, Oldham, who both admitted the same offence, will be sentenced next month.


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