Lawyers have urged grocers to follow Ocado’s example in taking a hard line against ‘crash for cash’ fraudsters after the retailer helped secure the conviction of three men who had targeted one of its delivery vans.

Staged traffic incidents - in which criminals deliberately cause accidents in order to make insurance claims for personal injury vehicle damage recovery and storage charges and credit hire costs - typically cost £25,000 to settle but can run to as much as £50,000.

The number of incidents was on the rise and supermarket delivery vans were being targeted, warned lawyers at Hill Dickinson. Grocers were especially vulnerable as their vans took longer to stop and fraudsters knew they would be insured and that “payments of claims will be easier”, they added.

“With more and more grocers becoming involved in home delivery services, it is leaving them more exposed,” said Hill Dickinson associate Ian Emery.

Ocado secured the conviction of three men who deliberately slammed on the Brakes of their car directly in front of an Ocado van in 2009, causing it to crash into them.

The men, who had made claims totalling £19,500, were sentenced to three months in prison at Croydon County Court.

A video camera in the Ocado van helped secure the conviction by disproving the claim that a pedestrian had walked into the road causing them to brake suddenly. “Our vans are fitted with black box technology for safety reasons and in this case the footage was extremely valuable as it proved our driver was an innocent party,” said John Norfolk, head of risk management at Ocado.

Emery added that “a number of clients have video cameras in their vehicles”, but that some preferred to keep that quiet so their vehicles did not become targets for thieves.

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