Someone has made a claim on my insurance for an accident that didn't happen?

[issano]

I got home from work yesterday and had a letter from my insurance company saying they needed to speak to me about the claim a third party has made about me in regards to a crash that happened last weekend, however this crash certainly didn't happen.

I rang my insurance straight away who said I have pulled out out of a side road into someone 'at Morrison's' but that there aren't even any details as to which town this Morrison's is allegedly in. I now need to fill in an accident report form and submit it along with as many pictures of my car as possible (I have taken about 20) to show there is no damage to my car. I forgot to ask them on the phone but how can this happen? I understand if someone has accidentally given the wrong reg number but how have they known my insurance details? Or do they not need to know them? I've never been through the claim process before!

I know there's nothing I can do about it but still feeling pretty stressed, has anyone had this happen to them? Is there anything else I need to do?? I'm worried it's going to take months to sort out.

Outrageous! How can this happen?!

They’ll have given a reg no to their insurance company, who have access to the insurance database to find out who that reg no is insured by. No great mystery.

They can get insurance details from the police. I was in an accident recently and couldn't remember my insurance company as I was in shock so the police looked it up.

I just had a reg when someone went into my car so if someone’s given the wrong digit it must have just landed on you. Presumably your insurer goes back to theirs and explains it’s a mistake.

Yeah no they don't need to know your insurance details, just a reg. Your insurance company will investigate and it will get cleared up, don't stress. Happened to me about 3 years ago .

It shouldn’t be stressful at all, don’t worry. Just send off the photos with a statement
Saying you were not involved. If you remember what you were doing that day and can scan them over a receipt or similar that might be helpful

If your car wasn’t involved, there won’t be evidence that it was and your insurer won’t pay out. Nothing “outrageous” about this.

There are a few possibilities:

They’ve given a slightly wrong reg no and it relates to a completely different make/model/colour of car

There’s a car with false plates using your reg no

They’re trying to scam you.

Assuming the claimant is on the level, they might have taken down the other side’s licence plate wrongly and ended up with yours, or your licence plate might have been cloned by a criminal. They then report your licence plate to their insurers who find out and contact your insurers. Should be simple enough to sort out.

They can get insurance details from the police.

Not for a car that isn’t theirs, they can’t.

I can see how it happens.

Someone hit me and drive off, I thought I remembered the reg, but when the police checked it the car was totally wrong. I was hit by a silver mini and the reg was for a black SUV

I imagine if they had been a similar car type could easily have gone after wrong person

Do you have anything that shows where you were at the time? Receipts? Phone photos?

Do you have timeline on your phone that proves where you werr ?

If you have Google maps on your phone tap on the menu lines in the top left and then your timeline. At the top it will say today, if you tap on that you can then choose any date and as long as you have had location and mobile data on it should show where you went that day and you can screenshot it to hopefully show you were no where near a Morrison's.
There's probably an iPhone equivalent if you have an iPhone but I don't know what it is.

You actually need to prove that your car wasn't at the scene of the 'accident' as they could argue that someone else was driving it.

Well you don’t really need to prove anything, it’s just helpful.

We had this once. Must have been one letter wrong in the number plate. It was for an incident 100s of miles away, so we just explained where we lived.

If there is no damage to your car then they will have no case against you! Damage Assessors are appointed by your Insurance company , and will inspect the car thoroughly for any sort of damage.This may be an honest mistake or even a scam of some sort ,but the Insurance will certainly not pay out unless it really has to!

This happened to me, someone had cloned my car plates. The insurance paid out and it was considered my fault. 8 months later the car was involved in an armed robbery and the police finally investigated. Those involved went to prison but Admiral refused to update my insurance records even with police evidence. I was totally screwed over and still feel very angry about it.

There was no damage to my car, I could prove I was elsewhere etc. It was outrageous. I feel sick thinking about it all.

My guess is that your insurance company will send a letter to the other insurance company and that will be the end of it.

Having had a minor car accident end up in court. There is no way they will pay out unless you agree to it.

This happened to me, but the other way round... I was hit by a car, I got out took their reg, model and colour as they drove off. Reported to insurance, they denied all responsibility, even tho its a local car, its been going through court, their choice, mot mine. They even produced a receipt to say they were in the area around the time. A complete waste of time and money.

Police visited me a few years ago to say I had caused accident and driven away. Female Police Officer was rude and aggressive. A witness had taken my reg number. I was so anxious but was eventually able to prove I was at work at the time. Witness had made a mistake. Seems to be a common mistake. People should take more care when taking reg numbers. No apology of course.

I'm going to try and do the timeline thing on my phone to price I wasn't near a Morrison's, I was at home most of the day but nipped out for a baby shower however I paid for my drink in cash so don't have a recipe or anything. Hopefully when they see their is no damage to my car that will be the end of then. The annoying thing is, I ordered some dash cams on Sunday night which got delivered Monday! If only o had ordered them a couple of days earlier

It is quite likely that your plates have been cloned. Just give the facts as you know them and any proof you can manage that your car was elsewhere. They can send an inspector to verify there is no matching damage on your car corresponding to what would be there if it had been responsible for the damage to the other car. There may also be video footage that they got the numberplate from which will hopefully show recognisable differences between the culprit's car and yours.

Can the police get CCTV from Morrisons carpark? Should be loads of evidence.

By 'evidence' I mean proof of your innocence!