Last summer whilst I was parked at our local hospital, the car in front reversed into me as he was about to leave. We exchanged details and I had my car checked the following day but other than a small mark on the bumper it was fine and I was happy to leave it. The other guy had already contacted his insurers and they phoned me to tell me to take my car to one of their repairers but I just told them there was no damage and as far as I was concerned that was an end to the matter. Yesterday - 6 months later, I got a call from an Indian call centre referring to my "collision" last year (he had the location too). Had I had the car repaired and did I realise how I was entitled to compensation for injuries and inconvenience! He was surprisingly insistent that it would be easy to claim for neck or back injuries. Now, I realise that these ambulance-chasing firms exist but surely they can only have got the details of this incident from the original chaps insurers. Why on earth would they want to encourage a claim against themselves by (presumably) selling the data? Or have I missed some obvious principle of business?

This seems to suggest that these people are contravening the Data Protection Act by accessing CUE, the insurers' Claims and Underwriting Exchange, that lists pretty much all claims and potential claims made through *any* insurer in the UK un order to solicit injury leads. What is particularly of note is the call centre prospector knew the location and date of the "collision" as well as the details of his vehicle plus his contact details. He was soliciting him to make a personal injury claim for a neck or back injury. Clearly no such injury had taken place. This information would not have been passed on by the TP insurer. The case is interesting because he never reported to his own insurer. Only the TP (at fault) insurers were informed. It is clearly not in their interest to pass on information to third parties who would be seeking to encourage claims against themselves. It looks to us like it might well be a breach of CUE and both the Data Protection and Claims Regulator regulations. It might make a good Telegraph story - not just for the motoring section but for the main newspaper. >