Successes15

The owner of a 2005 BMW 320Cd Sport claims that his car was stolen in a 4-hour time frame whilst his wife was at work having used the car for transportation. 2 keys were handed in, one claiming to be an original from new and the other a replacement key purchased from BMW following their purchase of the car from a trader (they bought the car with only one working key as the "spare" key would not work). When I checked the keys, one was indeed for the vehicle in question, but the "spare" key was in fact for a 2001 BMW 320D saloon car. It would seem that somebody has "doctored" this key to make it look like the spare for the car as when viewed under magnification (see pics) it can be seen that the key has been over-cut. I believe this to be either the "spare" key supplied from the trader which didn't work (because it was for another car) IF this story is true, OR it is just another key that has been doctored for the PH in support of his claim. Either way, the new spare BMW key the PH claims to have purchased is missing and is most likely how the vehicle was driven away from where it was left. Sold for export? Broken for parts?

Quite clearly, the key in the picture on the right has been cut over an existing possibly similar shaped key cut - evidence of this can be seen by the two different depths of leading edge cut as encircled. This is typical of the daily cases I see whereupon somebody is trying to defraud their insurer into paying out for a "stolen" car, when in fact the car has been otherwise disposed of (shipped out of the country, broken for spares etc.) In these cases the engine, ECU and other components fetch more money when there is a matching key...

Another missed detail by the PH was the difference in the two keys presented. They were similar in style to one another, yet the pictorial element on the luggage compartment release button are clearly different. BMW "diamond" keys vary on model year with regard to these graphics - the image below is the 2001 key, the image above is the later style used up until end of E46 production!

"Woooooow wo woooooaaaah, my Passat's on fire..."

One "flaming" fibber of a PH submitted a claim for the loss of his 2001 Passat. He claims it was stolen, only to be found abandoned with minor interior fire damage. There were no signs of a break in.. because the PH drove the car to the burn locus himself, set fire to the interior, shut and locked the doors with his key and then "hot footed" it away. The fire quickly went out due to a lack of oxygen due to the doors and windows being shut. He should have spotted the CCTV camera... it spotted him!!

Ambersett is now working with a Spanish Insurance Claims Handler, with offices in mainland Spain and Gibraltar in partnership with Eurotecs. This new partnership brings a new technical angle to compliment the investigation service already offered by Kevin Street of Eurotecs.