60 convicted over North East "cash for crash" scam

A total of 60 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty to being involved in one of the UK's largest "cash for crash" scams in the North East.

The fraud was so bad that people living in Derwentside, where the main players behind the scam were based, paid up to £100 extra for car insurance.

Police uncovered the scale of the fraud while investigating the activities of members of the Wright family, from Burnhope, who came to national prominence in 2009 when two local streets they had named after themselves were changed by officers in a bid to bolster public confidence.

Concerns over local organised crime led to a major investigation which looked at 1800 accidents handled by two particular firms and swiftly identified 261 which looked suspicious.

Investigators suspected some were entirely fictitious, some staged and some vastly exaggerated.