A New Type of Accident Scam

Accident Scam in Southsea

DON’T GET OUT OF YOUR CAR

 

This is a warning to motorists about an accident scam that happened to me in Southsea.  And some advice:  If in doubt DON’T GET OUT OF THE CAR!!!

 

The scam is to make you think you have injured a youth on a bike so he can get “compensation”.

 

This is how it happened:

At about 6pm I was crossing the junction of Telephone Road and Talbot Road, shown above, and had almost reached the other side, when the wheels of the car went over an object.   And at the same time there was shouting behind me.

 

I looked in my mirror and then stopped.  I saw three youths shouting that I had driven into them and that one of them had broken his ankle.  Fearing the worst, I jumped out of the car to see what had happened and saw youths between the ages of about 15 and 17 standing over a bike with a buckled front wheel.  They shouted at me that I had deliberately driven into them and that they wanted money.

 

Since there would be damage to the front of the car I had hit them , I tried to look – but they barred my way.  And one of them opened the door and took my ignition key.  While I tried to get that back the others were still screaming that they wanted compensation, and I was thinking “Someone please come.”

 

Someone did.  A middle aged lady in a black waist-length jacket and carrying a file of papers arrived.  She and I managed to recover my ignition key, but the  youths were still screaming that I had broken the ankle of one of them, so  I told them that since he said he had been injured I would have to phone the police.

 

And here I made a big mistake.  I got out my phone – a brand new Samsung Galaxy S4 - and started to dial 999.  But the tallest youth grabbed it out of my hand and after little more than a minute the ankle was miraculously healed and they ran off. 

 

I then borrowed the lady’s phone and called the police who were on the scene within 2 minutes.  About ten minutes later the police reported a drugs deal just a very short distance from where this scam accident had taken place, and the description of the youths involved fitted those involved in this scam. 

 

Although the lady who arrived on the scene was able to give a full description of the youths to the police, as yet I have heard nothing further. However, it would appear that my phone was used as payment to the drug dealer.  

 

In hindsight, I can see that I should never have got out of the car.  There was no damage to it so the youths must have thrown something under the car so the rear wheels went over it.  The advice has to be the same as in South Africa: stay in the car, lock the doors and phone the police. 

 

The photo taken just after the scam shows a completely clear road with no debris, so we have no idea what they threw under the car.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find out who the kind lady was and I'd really like to thank her.  It happened on Friday 13th December at about 6.05pm.