Continued success for automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) strategy: Two years on…are you missing out?

Published 24 March 2022

Two years ago we launched our ANPR strategy in defending credit hire and fraudulent credit hire claims at our annual conference. 

Our initial focus was on three main areas:

1. How ANPR evidence could be used to negotiate significant reductions in the non-fraud credit hire arena;

2. The way in which ANPR evidence can be used to defeat entire fraudulent claims and secure findings of Fundamental Dishonesty (where credit hire features alongside a claim for personal injury and other associated losses); and

3. Deploying an effective pre litigation to litigation plan of action in order to avoid some of the pitfalls which can negatively impact the success of the strategy.

When we launched our strategy, the use of ANPR evidence was relatively new in insurance claims, and judicial appetite was untested. Initial signs were however promising as over the summer of 2020 we had a number of cases where ANPR evidence proved of interest to judges, whether at Case Management Conferences or Alternative Dispute Resolution Hearings.

By our one year anniversary, many more cases had proceeded through the litigation process and we took stock of the strategy’s success and reported our findings, which included:

Two years on the strategy remains highly successful.

Of concluded cases with strong and favourable ANPR evidence in the last 12 months:

Therefore if you haven’t yet deployed an ANPR strategy across your credit hire claims portfolio it is safe to say you are overpaying claims and, worse still, paying out on fraudulent claims.

Strategy in action

Mahmud

The insurer client had secured favourable ANPR evidence pre litigation. The evidence was raised in the defence and as no response was received, we proceeded to obtain an ANPR storyboard to accompany the evidence.

In order to bolster the ANPR evidence we:

• Carried out further investigations into the Credit Hire Organisation, noting concerns with the company not operating out of their registered address (now a convenience store);
• Uncovered that there were no storage facilities at the address stated on the storage agreement; and
• Matched the Claimant to a previous discontinued claim in which staged concerns were present.

All of this evidence, including the storyboard, was given to the claimant at disclosure stage. Following disclosure, the claimant failed to serve any witness evidence and agreed to our drop hands offer to discontinue the claim. Savings in excess of £30,000 were achieved.

The ANPR storyboard allowed us to present to the claimant’s solicitor (and to the Court, had the matter proceeded to trial) how the claimant’s vehicle was clearly in use during the alleged periods of hire and storage. It helped to compare the locations of the vehicle with the corresponding addresses of the claimant and the storage venues, showing that it was highly likely it was the claimant who was driving the vehicle.

Desai

In this case the claimant’s vehicle was caught on numerous ANPR cameras throughout the period of hire.

Pre-litigation the claimant openly confirmed that his vehicle was not in use during the repair period. This was clearly inconsistent with the ANPR evidence.

The ANPR concerns were pleaded in the defence and there was no response to this. We obtained the ANPR evidential pack and served the witness statement. Again, there was no direct response to the disclosed evidence. 

The claimant then discontinued the claim one week prior to trial. 

Abdullah

The crux of the issue was that the claimant’s vehicle was still in use during the hire period, as evidenced by the ANPR evidence.

It was agreed that we should use the ANPR evidence to discredit the claimant’s claim and where possible, if litigated, to use the evidence to show fundamental dishonesty on the claimant’s behalf and seek a S.57 CJA finding against the claimant in order to have the whole claim dismissed.

On disclosure of the evidence the claimant discontinued pre-issue.

How can we help you?

If you are interested in utilising ANPR evidence, we can work with you to:

• Obtain access to ANPR evidence.
• Establish a scoping and effective triaging process.
• Create a tailored ANPR strategy for your credit hire and fraud teams.
• Produce storyboards depicting the ANPR evidence.
• Host training and/or workshops to upskill your claims teams.
• Hold regular clinics to ‘check in’ on progress and address any challenges.
• Feedback on successes as well as any lessons learnt.
• Provide advice on any third party challenges received (including compliance, GDPR, human rights)

For further information please contact Helen Mason on the details below.