The Insurance Fraud Bureau's Q2 2011 ‘Crash for Cash’ hot spot statistics has placed Birmingham at the top of the pile for the sixth consecutive quarter.

The table pinpoints the top twenty areas of the UK affected by ‘crash for cash’ activity.

Sheffield and Manchester remain in second and third place respectively.

While Nottingham and Cardiff both jumped two spots to fourth and fifth in the rankings.

The IFB currently has 29 live organised insurance fraud operations with 17 different Police forces, focused on fraud valued at approximately £59.5m.

Operations have to date resulted in over 486 arrests, 119 criminal convictions and sentences including over 91 years imprisonment, for trials that have concluded so far.

Glen Marr, director of the IFB said: "We use our powerful analytical software to interrogate a significant level of industry data, which includes that relating to insurance claims. This provides the insurance industry with unique capability to identify insurance fraudsters, link parties together, to include professionals that are assisting this criminal activity, and ultimately disrupt their illegal activities".

"Experience has demonstrated that it requires a sustained collective industry effort to reduce the incidence of this type of fraud, and that is precisely what is in place.

"Insurers have invested heavily in reducing insurance fraud, to include ‘crash for cash’. This investment is also being supported by consumers, who intolerant of insurance fraud and the criminals associated with such, are taking a stand by reporting suspicions to their own insurers and to the industry fraud Cheatline managed by the IFB."

Regional Hotspot League Table on Crash for Cash

Post Area Q2 Rank Variation

Birmingham ( B ) 1 0

Sheffield ( S ) 2 0

Manchester ( M ) 3 0

Nottingham ( NG ) 4 2

Cardiff ( CF ) 5 2

Liverpool ( L ) 6 -2

Newcastle-upon-Tyne ( NE ) 7 -2

Leicester ( LE ) 8 3

Bristol ( BS ) 9 0

London South-East ( SE ) 10 8

London East ( E ) 11 -3

Coventry ( CV ) 11 3

Glasgow ( G ) 13 3

London North ( N ) 14 -2

Peterborough ( PE ) 15 4

Leeds ( LS ) 16 -6

Brighton ( BN ) 16 9

Reading ( RG ) 18 5