According to the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), Blackburn has held the top spot for van insurance fraud for years.

However, new figures from the group have revealed that the region has lost its first place position, and Bradford can now take the crown for most false van claims. Lancashire towns Oldham and Liverpool came third and fourth in the table.

Bradford has become home to the 'crash for cash' con, where highly organised criminal gangs stage collisions with unsuspecting drivers to claim for damages from the innocent party’s insurance firm.

According to the IFB such a crime is costing the insurance sector £300million a year, and adds an extra 5% to every van and car insurance policy. Thus costing the average driver an additional £40.

A popular method with scam artists is to manoeuvre a car in front of a targeted motor and then brake sharply, causing a crash. This could be on a motorway junction whilst travelling at high speed, or at slower speeds at traffic lights or roundabouts.

Van drivers keeping their eyes pierced

A spokesperson from a van insurance company said that van drivers should be vigilant, as criminals prefer to target vans and commercial vehicles:

"The fraudsters' preferred target vehicle is a commercial vehicle because he can be fairly confident that a commercial vehicle will be insured, and, as a bonus the driver will probably not have any personal or emotional attachment to the vehicle."

He went on to say: "Other circumstances which might trigger suspicion are if the incident occurs at a roundabout or junction, especially during the hours of darkness when there is fewer witnesses about. If there is multiple claims for passengers' personal injuries which are out of proportion to the scale of the accident or if fictitious passengers are added to the claim list."

Some believe that the increase in these scams is due to an influx of accident businesses. Detective Sergeant Ben McDonald of Airedale and North Bradford CID commented: "There is a massive link with the amount of accident management companies in the area and the number of fraudulent claims that have been committed."

More van crime

In similar news, an East Lothian man has warned van motorists to be on the lookout for false van adverts. The 41-year-old, from Musselburgh, has urged drivers to be vigilant, after he was duped by organised criminals into buying a stolen van.

He said that he was scammed by the group after replying to a magazine advert to purchase the vehicle. He flew to Birmingham, had all the appropriate checks done, but months later found out it had been stolen.

He is the seventh driver from the Lothian's area to fall victim to such a crime. He only found out about the fraud by police.

The painter and decorator said: “I met the guy at the airport and we drove in the van to a house and I did an HPI check to see if it had been stolen or damaged but it all came back fine.

He said: "But months later, once the actual papers were checked by the DVLA, they knew they were from the stolen batch and the police were called."

He added that he paid £10,000 for the van with money he had been saving for years. He ended up paying £20,000, as the Royal Mail offered to sell the van back to him.