Two men have been sentences to a combined total of more than nine years in prison following a £275,500 fraud investigation led by the City of London Police's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).
Kamlesh Vadukul of Firshill Avenue, Sheffield and Raju Patel of Segundo Road, Walsall, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and to transferring criminal property. They were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on May 20, 2026.
IFED opened a money laundering investigation after receiving intelligence that fraud had been committed through a company trading as Tyre Boys Ltd, which purported to operate as a body repair shop for vehicles involved in road traffic collisions. Those collisions were either deliberately induced or had never taken place, according to a police statement.
Enquiries further established that Tyre Boys had obtained a credit agreement with Accident Credit Group (ACG), a company that provides short-term finance to non-fault parties for vehicle repairs and then seeks reimbursement from the at-fault party's insurer. Between December 2015 and October 2016, ACG funded 39 cases for Tyre Boys totaling £275,548.84.
Meanwhile, banking records obtained under production orders granted at Birmingham Crown Court showed that funds were paid into accounts in the name of Vadukul and subsequently forwarded to Patel, the police statement said.
ACG was later alerted that some of the claims it had financed had been flagged as fraudulent by insurers, who refused to pay the invoices, leaving ACG out of pocket. Production orders obtained under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 provided the banking material that demonstrated the flow of funds to the defendants.
Vadukul was sentenced to four years and one month for fraud by false representation and two years and four months for transferring criminal property, to run concurrently. Patel received five years for fraud by false representation and two years and six months for transferring criminal property, also to run concurrently.
"These two individuals deliberately targeted an innocent business in an attempt to exploit it for financial gain, but have ultimately paid the price for their actions. They have now received substantial custodial sentences and their criminal activity was disrupted before further harm could be caused," said IFED detective chief inspector Nik Jethwa. "The confiscation order marks a significant result, ensuring criminally obtained funds are recovered and returned to those affected. IFED will continue to take decisive action against economic crime, disrupt offenders and pursue every opportunity to secure justice for victims."
Rather than targeting an insurer directly, the defendants exploited a financial intermediary embedded in the non-fault claims supply chain. By fraudulently obtaining credit from ACG, the scheme shifted the immediate financial loss onto a third party, creating distance from the insurers and complicating early detection.
This approach reflects a broader pattern flagged by fraud investigators. Since 2021, motor damage and credit hire fraud has grown by 275%, according to Aviva's claims data, with fraudsters, increasingly seeking to exaggerate and inflate the cost of repair and credit hire claims. Bogus claims for motore damage rose 24% in 2024 alone.
The government's Motor Insurance Taskforce, reporting in December 2025, identified replacement vehicle and credit hire costs as one of the principal operational cost drivers in the motor market, noting that referral practices and weak incentives to control charges had contributed to higher costs across the system. The ABI and industry participants are now developing a good practice code to reduce third-party referrals — a response that directly addresses the kind of supply chain vulnerability that the Tyre Boys Ltd scheme exploited.
The case sits within a wider and worsening fraud landscape for UK motor insurers.
The ABI reported £1.16 billion in detected fraudulent general insurance claims in 2024, with motor insurance remaining the most targeted area. Insurers detected 51,700 motor scams worth £576 million, or 53% of all fraudulent claims identified during the year. Aviva alone blocked over 6,000 fraudulent claims in the first half of 2025, preventing more than £60 million in losses, while Allianz UK detected £92.6 million in fraudulent activity during the same period, a 34% year-on-year increase.
As IFED's head DCI Jethwa has noted, the department's strategic priorities are enforcement, disruption, protection and prevention, tackling all forms of insurance fraud, including motor, commercial and public liability.
With detected motor fraud now exceeding half a billion pounds annually, the industry's investment in IFED — funded by the insurance industry via the ABI with a national remit covering England and Wales — continues to deliver tangible returns.
