One of the UK’s leading insurers, Aviva, has detected more than 3,000 organised crash for cash claimants last year – or one every three hours – with one-in-four of these claims occurring in Birmingham.

The number of induced accidents (where fraudsters deliberately target innocent motorists to cause accidents in order to claim whiplash compensation) remained worryingly close to 2014’s record levels, dropping just 2% in 2015, according to figures from Aviva.

Conversely, the number of “staged” (when two damaged cars are brought together to make it look like an accident) and bogus accidents detected by Aviva fell by 40%, as tougher fraud prevention tools at the point of sale have stopped fraudsters accessing insurance.

Motor fraud remains the largest source of fraud, representing 60% of all claims fraud with a value of £58m.

One-in-nine whiplash claims submitted to Aviva is tainted by fraud, and the insurer currently has more than 17,000 suspicious whiplash claims under investigation.

Top 10 locations for induced accidents in 2015:

1. Birmingham
2. North London
3. East London
4. Leeds
5. Harrow
6. North West London
7. Bradford
8. Luton
9. Coventry
10. Oldham