Crash for cash most common in North
"Crash for cash" incidents are more common in the north of the country than in the south, research has shown.
An investigation by insurer Direct Line identified hundreds of staged crash hotspots across the UK, with Centenary Way in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester, coming top.
The other four - Haslingden roundabout at junction 5 of the M65 in Lancashire, Scotland Road roundabout at junction 13 of the M65, Gannow Top roundabout on Cavalry Way, Burnley, and Eden Point roundabout on the A34 in Stockport - are also all in the North.
Denham roundabout on the M40 in Buckinghamshire, the connecting road between Jarman Park and the A414 in Hemel Hempstead and the roundabout connecting the A312 and A4020 in south London are most common crash for cash locations in the South.
The 'accidents', which cost the insurance industry an estimated £350 million every year, or £44 for every honest motorist, and delay the processing of genuine claims, are caused by fraudsters making unnecessary emergency stops in the hope that other drivers crash into them.
They then make inflated claims against the other motorist's insurer, often piling on faked injuries to the total.
Kate Lotts, director of specialist claims at Direct Line, said: "As well as adding to the cost of insurance, they delay payouts on genuine claims as any reported accident at a known scam site has to undergo additional investigations."
She added that monitoring of bogus claims had made the insurer's anti-fraud team particularly cautious when investigating suspicious incidents.