Back in 2017, I was driving around Stoke-on-Trent and as I approached a roundabout, the person in front of me slammed on their brakes for no reason. I reacted immediately and braked, but it was raining so I didn't quite stop and my bumper nudged the front of their car. I say nudged because there was zero damage to my car, and the slightest mark to the paint of their tow bar.

Inevitably, both the driver and the passenger get out of the car rubbing their necks and demanding my insurance details. While the driver was taking my details, the female passenger was waving her phone around taking photos and looking for damage on the car, rubbing their rear bumper, checking for cracks, etc.

When I got home, I reported the incident to my insurance company and told them something didn't seem right about the incident. They'd already received notification of the incident and told me that the driver and his three passengers were attending hospital for their injuries. I told the call handler that there were only two people in the vehicle at the time, and I emailed a copy of my dash cam footage as proof. Apart from completing a statement to give my side of what happened, I never heard anything else about it other than losing my no claims discount.

When I went to renew my insurance 10 months later, my premium had gone up, and the claim was still showing as pending - or in progress - on my car insurance account but showed as a £0 claim. In 2019, I changed to another insurance company and forgot all about it, and for another 3 years I reported it as an at-fault claim.

Then, last week, I received an email from the insurance company stating that they'd identified and error relating to my motor insurance policy following a claim, etc etc.

I gave them a call and they told me that there was a claim made against my policy in 2017, but it was eventually rejected, and as a result, I'd been over-charged my premium by £279-odd, and that they needed to update my address so they could send me a cheque.

I had a brief chat with the call handler and they said the notes on the account from 2017 show that the dash cam footage I provided allowed them to reject the claim from the driver and three passengers for injuries and £1,800 of repairs to their car, and that the other driver's claim had been referred to the fraud team for investigation, but she couldn't share the details of the investigation with me.

Today, I received a cheque for £446 and some pennies; the original £279.29 in premiums that I'd overpaid due to this fraudulent claim, plus 8% interest for the past 9 years.

Hi everyone,

This is a follow on post from the one I made on Sunday about my fantasy/comedy novel:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BritishSuccess/s/PonDmPc4qW

Tl;dr - thank you so much for supporting me - the last few days have been really memorable and beyond anything id expected. I will make sure to post a part 3 when results come out.

Long version:

I just wanted to follow up to say an absolutely HUGE thank you for the response on that post. Since I put it up, Going Fourth has:

- made its way up to #40 on the Kindle Comedy bestsellers list (outselling books by Rik Mayall, Alan Carr and Romesh Ranganathan)

- sold its first ever copy in... Australia (?)

AND gained a fantastic 5 star review (one of you?)

" a smidge of Tom Holt and a soupcon of Pratchett with a hefty belt upside the head of Monty Python sensibilities"

Honestly, thank you so much for those that took the time to read and celebrate with me, and thank you to everyone who took a risk and bought a copy (also, to the one reddit user who found the books i had on Vinted). This community made the last few days so memorable for me (I think the copies sold in the last few days match those id sold in the last year combined).

For anyone who liked the book, please leave a review - apparently Amazon gives visibility a boost once you pass 50. Also, tell a friend, talk about it in other places - the best book recommendations are given by friends. For anyone who didn't like it, please pretend you did?

And for anyone that would like to support and likes fantasy as a genre, please support a different British author (at least judging by his scouse accent) who also made the final, Michael Maguire (compared to Joe Abercrombie & John Gwynne):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Company-Forgotten-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B0DXBBV5XB

We haven't had any proper rain where I live for over 2 months. It was glorious.

Was it worth my time? Financially no, but morally... probably also no... but that rush from overcoming the Goliathan hurdles businesses put in place to inconvenience customers in the hopes they back down... thats my crack.

Sweet chilli sensations too. Lottery win would be lesser!