On paper, Ghenoua Fadel, and her unborn baby were lucky to have escaped the collision alive. Police had arrived at a rain-soaked Sydney intersection to find two mangled vehicles and a dazed Ms Fadel who was eight months pregnant and reportedly suffering stomach and back pains. She explained that after missing the stop sign, her vehicle ploughed into the side of another moving vehicle.
Unbeknown to Ms Fadel and the other driver, a nearby CCTV camera captured the entire incident. Like the majority of “staged collisions”, the incident was stage-managed in a quiet area, during the dead of night, to minimise the risk of witnesses. The CCTV footage depicted Ms Fadel and her alleged accomplice, Jamal Gmrawi, arriving at the intersection in their respective vehicles. After twice manoeuvring his Nissan X-Trail into position, Mr Gmrawi is seen exiting his vehicle. Moments later, Ms Fadel reappears, slamming her Toyota Rav 4 into Mr Gmrawi’s vehicle with force, before walking away from the wreckage. A third person, who is yet to be identified, is also witnessed in close proximity to the collision site, appearing to keep watch, in a separate vehicle. After inspecting the damage, the unidentified person enters Ms Fadel's vehicle and performs a second hit with Mr Gmrawi’s vehicle before vanishing from the scene, which is soon attended by police and ambulance officials.
In the days that followed, Ms Fadel and Mr Gmrawi lodged separate insurance claims with AAMI and NRMA. AAMI commissioned a forensic examination report which revealed Mr Gmrawi's vehicle was stationary at the moment of impact and furthermore, there were two separate impacts, not one as would be expected in the type of collision that was alleged.
During subsequent police interviews, Ms Fadel and Mr Gmrawi maintained their original stories – until officers presented the CCTV footage. Ms Fadel recently appeared before Bankstown Local Court where, cradling her newborn baby, she pleaded guilty to a number of offences and acknowledged Mr Gmrawi was an associate of her husband. Ms Fadel claimed she had been going through "a hard time" and "wasn't thinking straight" when she committed the offence. She went on to state "I was worried about the car I had. I wanted a bigger car for my four children and couldn't afford it", adding "of course I feel bad ... that's why I pleaded guilty!"
Far from being an isolated incident, staged collisions are part of an escalating national trend that is costing everyday motorists millions of dollars through increases in their insurance premiums.
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