SIX ‘crash for cash’ scammers who staged an accident and tried to make bogus whiplash claims have been sentenced.

Yusuf Mohammed Wasway, 25, of Cherry Street, Blackburn was jailed for 27 weeks.

Aziz Bham, 23, of Addington Street, Ibrahim Seedat, 28, of Wareham Street, Ismail Seedat, 24, of Bethel Road, and Ahmed Patel, 29, of Town Walk, all Blackburn were each sentenced to 18 weeks imprisonment.

Sabina Patel, 26, of Cherry Street, Blackburn was given a 12 week prison sentence which was suspended for two years.

She was also given a 12 month supervision order.

All six appeared at Preston Crown Court on Tuesday following guilty pleas to fraud by false representation at an earlier hearing.

The gang engineered a crash involving two vehicles – a blue Audi driven by Wasway and black Vauxhall Astra driven by Ibrahim Seedat at a roundabout on Whitebirk Drive, Blackburn, on April 18, 2008.

Wasway received £1,800 after submitting a bogus claim to Zurich Insurance for the damage caused to the car.

All six, including the other four defendants who were passengers in the two cars, then tried to make a bogus claim for whiplash injuries.

The scam was uncovered after the insurance company noticed inconsistencies with the damage reported in the claims made by the defendants.

Det Chief Insp Dean Holden said: “Crash for cash scams are dangerous and illegal and will not be tolerated.

"Criminal gangs involved in this type of scam are targeting honest and law-abiding motorists and are putting people’s lives at risk.”

Click below for the crash-for-cash photo gallery