Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Increasingly, newspapers and online news publications are reporting that a growing number of parents are breaking the law in a bid to help their children get cheaper car insurance.

Apparently as much as 41% of parents deliberately lie when filling out policy applications.

Essentially, when they ring up or fill in forms for car insurance, they claim to be the main drivers on the policy, when in fact it is one of their children who is the main driver, or owner of the car. – a practice known as “fronting” – which usually offers large savings, but could also lead to prosecution.

According to numerous sources, Co-operative Insurance found that almost half of the nation’s parents were actually fronting policies, while 61% admitted that they would do so in the future.

The industry is warning that it is an extremely risky practice – indeed, there is a number of law society websites and these sorts of legal services that have to deal with this so called “fronting”, as well as a growing number of car insurance fraudsters.

Tim Franklin, of Co-operative Financial Services, said: “The view that motor insurance fronting is harmless and does not hurt anyone could not be further from the truth.”

He added: “Parents who believe they are helping their children to save money by fronting are not only risking prosecution, but harming their chances of obtaining insurance in the future.”

But the real scam, I think, is the insurance companies themselves.

They charge extortionate rates to these young kids passing their tests. How are they supposed to stump up thousands of pounds, when they are 17 years old, and have just shelled out all their money on a car?

Never mind growing accident claims for compensation or the plethora of claims for whiplash injury compensation – the real problem is the fact that these people charge way too much money. It’s no wonder parents are resorting to “fronting” to help save money.

The issue seems to be being tackled in precisely the wrong way. Cut down the costs, and there will be no fronting to worry about.

Centenary Way in Manchester has apparently been named the UK hotspot for ‘crash for cash’ accidents. The idea is, I suppose, to go there especially with the intention to crash: these car insurance fraudsters deliberately stage accidents to claim compensation.

It sounds a strange idea to me, but there you go. It obviously works for them: Direct Line estimates that such scams total £350 million each year — which, when you think about it, is quite a shocking amount. Of course, I knew car insurance fraud was quite prevalent these days, but I didn’t know it was to the tune of so much money.

The company goes on to say that it compiled its rankings through analysis of insurance data, and with information from “coordinated nationwide investigations” by the car insurance industry.

The north of England seems to dominate the list, with junctions in Burnley and Stockport making up the top five, and another location in Lancashire at number nine.

I suppose it all adds to the difficulty of other people to make car accident claims for compensation — as well as how expensive it is for young drivers to get insured on their cars. When my younger brother was trying to insure his first car the other month, some of the sums he was being quoted were ludicrous.

But then, however unfair it seems, I suppose the amount of young drivers who crash every year force them into raising their prices.

My friend called earlier today to tell me about a car crash he had suffered earlier in the week. He wants to claim whiplash insurance compensation before the weekend. Essentially, it sounds as though someone drove into the back of his car at the traffic lights in town. He was slowing to a halt, and the car behind somehow hadn’t realised the lights had turned red, and just trundled into the back of him.

Thankfully it looks like everything is in place for the insurance stuff to be sorted out. The man who crashed into him was more than helpful, which is good to hear. But that reminds me, there is an article here that claims a significant amount of people don’t realise their options when it comes to things like this. I stumbled across it the other day, and I must remember to send it over to my friend – he would hate it if I informed him afterwards that he missed out on an accident claim or something.

I’m not entirely sure when I’ll get to see him next, though, because he was going to come to the NFL game at Wembley this week, but he has just dropped out. When people live all over the country, the problem is that you rarely get to see each other face to face. I’ll have to have a dig around to see if I can find his email address, I suppose, although I can’t remember ever getting it off him.

And now there are only a couple of days to go before the game. I’m beginning to look forward to it quite a lot. There was an article in The Times about Tom Brady, and it just reinforced that he and top target Randy Moss will be two players who it will be pretty fantastic to have seen play, after they have retired. Yes, I’m looking forward to it quite a lot!