A motorist has been sent to jail after the ACT Supreme Court found he overinsured his BMW and deliberately drove into the back of a car in a staged accident.

Adam Hasan Kilani’s silver convertible hit an Audi SUV on a straight stretch of Eucumbene Drive in the Canberra suburb of Duffy on February 27 2020. No other cars were present.

Kilani pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception and a charge of dangerous driving, but maintained the accident was genuine.

He initially told police he was a passenger in the BMW and his sister was driving. The car was insured for $132,000 with NRMA Insurance, and he made a claim the following day.

Later, Kilani admitted he was driving and had lied because he was unlicensed and wanted to avoid any problem with the insurance claim.  

But Acting Chief Justice David Mossop found the accident was staged and false representations to the insurance company and police were not limited to who was behind the wheel.

The BMW was bought for $25,000 about April 2019, and third-party pricing data indicated a car of that model and year would be worth between $32,000 and $42,000. The overinsurance provided a motive for offending, the judge said.

Kilani initially told police he did not know the occupants of the other car, but he later admitted he had worked on painting jobs with Rabea Fares, who was a passenger in the Audi, driven by his wife Lina Faris.

“The version of events ultimately given by the offender was that [given] in his evidence to the court at the trial of his co-offenders,” Justice Mossop said.

At that hearing, Kilani said he was in the area to look at a painting job with Fares and had followed the Audi, which braked so “quickly or briskly” he did not have enough time to avoid a crash.

But expert evidence showed the Audi was stationary at the time of the accident, there were no details of the painting job and the crash circumstances described by Mr Kilani were implausible, the judgement says.

“It suggests that, on an otherwise empty road, in daylight and in good conditions, the offender would be travelling closely behind the Audi and that the Audi had suddenly stopped,” Justice Mossop said. 

“There was some vague reference to a trailer. There was no evidence that the driver of the Audi provided that as a reason for the accident.”

Justice Mossop said the offence was charged as an unsuccessful attempt and the loss to the insurance company was “substantially less” than it might have been, but the scam had required premeditation and planning with Fares.

“The conduct involved pursuit of the scheme through the lodging of an insurance claim and the maintenance of a false version of events to police and insurance investigators,” he said. “It involved the diversion of resources by police, ambulance and fire brigade, and involved undermining the system of motor vehicle insurance through the making of a false claim.”

Kilani was sentenced in August to 17 months in prison, to be suspended after eight months served upon entry into a good-behaviour undertaking for two years. He was also sentenced to a concurrent 27 days’ imprisonment for dangerous driving.

Fares and Faris were previously sentenced after a jury trial, the judgment says. Fares was ordered to serve two years in prison, with a non-parole period of one year, while Faris received a two-year intensive correction sentence, which can be served in the community.

The decision is available here.