The Boywonder was visited by an Insurance Assessor today.

In October, as he was driving along in a particularly built-up local road, a car came out of a side road, reversed and advanced again, straight into his path. The Boywonder braked but it was too late and there was a low speed collision.

As there was a lot of on-street parking and he couldn’t stop safely, the Boywonder motioned to the other driver that he would pull over a little way up the road, whereupon the other driver followed him, overtook him and blocked the road in front of him. The driver got out of his car and walked over to the Boywonder’s forcing the door open and shouting at the cowering 18 year old in the driving seat.

The Boywonder, taken aback and shaking,  then got out to inspect the damage. His car, a little Citroën, was not damaged at all but there was a minor dent on the other driver’s car. He gave his insurance details and the other driver scribbled a telephone number on a scrap of paper, said he was in a hurry and drove off.

Since then he has been pursuing us for an insurance claim, saying that the Boywonder swerved into his car and damaged it. We heard for the first time today that he is pursuing a personal injury claim for whiplash.

It goes without saying that these claims are spurious. The man is clearly a chancer out for what he can get. The Boywonder is a very careful, cautious driver, certainly not a boy racer. He doesn’t smoke or do drugs and hardly ever drinks alcohol.

On this particular stretch of this road, parked cars on either side, approaching a dramatic bend in the road he was going at less than 30mph. It would have been foolish to go any faster and, given on coming traffic and buses weaving in and out of the stationary vehicles, it’s likely he was going much more slowly.

And yet the insurance assessor told us that she sees personal injury claims such as this daily The way she put it, claimants go along to their doctor claiming a pain in the neck and describing the incident and the doctor can’t prove it definitively. In fact a colleague of the OH’s was himself hit by a claim from a woman claiming whiplash.

As it happens, it looks like the insurance company will be reluctant to admit this spurious insurance claim. Apparently they will comb social media to see if they can find photos of this man on his Facebook profile out partying when he says he has a whiplash injury.

What is wrong with people? Why would you say that someone had caused you an injury when they hadn’t? Why would you lie and have to keep up the pretence and make sure your facts were right each time you were questioned?  Why do the insurance companies shrug their shoulders and pay out these claims?

Because one way or another they’ll always get their money. We’ll pay because they’ll take away our no claims bonus or increase our premium. And that’s why insurance costs so much.