The Freedom of Information Act has revealed further conflicting interest as the Police are earning millions of pounds by passing on crash details to lawyers and insurance companies, figures show.
According to the London edition of Metro 31st January, they have reported that various police forces are accepting “administration fees” for making available copies of road traffic accident reports.
The Metropolitan Police received £5 million in this way since 2009, while Hampshire and Fife Constabulary pulled in £480,000 and £200,000 respectively since 2010 after a request for this information by LV insurance company.
The Met’s own published figures show it made an average of £371 for each of the 13,000 requests it received which somebody, invariably insurance paying customers, must pay for.
The news that the Police could be seen to be capitalising on accidents along with accident management companies will not sit well with customers especially those who are hot on the heals of insurers to claim exuberant expenses.
It will be interesting to see how the industry will change come April where legislation will come into effect that will prohibit the payment of “referral fees” and there will also be a cap on the amounts paid out to claimants – including passengers in cheap taxi Insurance policies or cheap fleet insurance policies, as the cost will not be a factor.
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