Pulp Fiction! Insurance Fraudster Sentenced For Slip-And-Trip Orange Carton Scam

Case is believed to be the first private prosecution by an insurer for a public liability fraud.

A 41-year-old former law student from Dewsbury was today sentenced to 21 months for pretending to trip over a crate of orange juice cartons in a supermarket and claim for her injuries. The case is believed to be the first private prosecution in the UK by an insurance company against a so-called 'slip-and-trip' fraudster.

The deliberate and premeditated plan, which involved at least two other women, was aimed at obtaining money from a supermarket in Bradford. Farida Ashraf waited for eight months after her 'accident' before making her claim in the hope that CCTV footage would have been erased.

Judge David Hatton QC sitting at Bradford Crown Court gave Farida Ashraf, who studied law at Bradford College, a suspended jail sentence of 21 months. She will also be electronically tagged and placed under a curfew.

Praising insurer Aviva for pursuing the case, the judge said: "Fraudulent insurance claims are rife currently - certainly in this city. There has to be a deterrent in the form of a sentence of imprisonment. Employees of the supermarket were caused stress and anxiety as a finger was pointed at them for having been negligent when they clearly were not."

He added: "This is a case properly and responsibly brought by the insurance company and one that should have been brought by CPS but that is water under bridge."

The case was taken by Aviva after Mrs Ashraf's original claim was thrown out of court in 2016, when CCTV footage revealed two female accomplices placing a pallet of orange juice cartons on the floor of Al-Halal supermarket in Bradford so that Ashraf could pretend to stumble over it. Ashraf then, eight months later, sent a letter to the supermarket claiming for injuries that would have cost Aviva up to £60,000. Her claim included for injuries to her right wrist even though the video showed her falling onto her left wrist.

The judge in the original case found that Ashraf had put forward a...