Defendant firms named in £126m credit hire 'conspiracy' action

Seven rate surveyors who fabricated evidence to argue down credit hire compensation claims have been found in contempt of court.

The High Court today found seven employees of defunct survey company Autofocus Limited had each engaged in conduct which interfered with the due administration of justice. They now face prison after committing ‘perjury on an industrial scale’.

It also emerged in the judgment that three firms of solicitors are among the defendants in related proceedings in the commercial court for a claim worth more than £126m.

The three firms - Keoghs, Lyons Davidson and Morgan Cole (since merged with Blake Lapthorn) - are alleged to have 'conspired and/or combined with' Autofocus 'with the sole or predominant intention to injure or cause financial loss to those businesses operating in the credit-car hire industry’.

The defendants in the commercial court proceedings are said to have embarked upon 'concerted action' with an intention to use unlawful means by creating, producing and deploying false and misleading expert evidence at trial in order to reduce the amount owed to insurers.

The Gazette has contacted all three firms for comment.

The claimant in the contempt case, claims management company Accident Exchange Limited, estimated that 30,000 cases were affected by the defendants signing false statements of truth after making rates reports for credit hire claims. The dishonest actions of Autofocus and the defendants had serious implications for the value of shares of Accident Exchange, and led to substantial losses which in turn meant 300 employees were made redundant.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of Automotive and Insurance Solutions Group plc (formerly Accident Exchange Group plc), told the court the Autofocus fraud 'resulted in a large volume of appellate litigation that was necessary in order to expose the deceit and to resolve the number of cases determined on a false premise at first instance'.

The Autofocus defendants - Nathan Broom, Elaine Walker, Andrew Watts, David James, Laurence Gray, Keel Broom and Duncan Sadler - each produced written surveys, reports and/or witness statements setting out details of alleged telephone enquiries purporting to show basic hire rates. In some cases each of the defendants went to court to argue why claimed credit hire rates were too high, but they had failed to do the necessary checks on what rates should be.

Estimates studied in a sample of cases were found to be false and proof the defendants had committed contempt.

In Accident Exchange Ltd v Broom & Ors, the Honourable Mr Justice Supperstone said: 'The evidence that [Autofocus] was involved in the systematic, endemic fabrication of evidence in which the defendants and each of them knowingly and actively participated throughout the material time is overwhelming.'

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Defendant firms named in £126m credit hire 'conspiracy' action