A 26-YEAR-OLD man and his parents have been jailed over a wedding bus insurance scam.

They were sentenced for making exaggerated insurance claims after their wedding coaches booked with Bury-based Hollins Travel were involved in two collisions.

At Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, Andrew Singh, aged 26, his father Graham Mahendar Singh, aged 53, and mother Niramella Singh, aged 49, all from Old Trafford, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and perjury.

All three were sentenced to serve a total of one year in prison — nine months for conspiracy to defraud and 12 months for perjury.

The family had booked three coaches with Hollins Travel for Andrew Singh’s wedding in July, 2004.

The coaches were to pick up Andrew’s wedding party of more than 120 people from their home in Old Trafford and take them to Preston. En route, one of the coaches, carrying mainly women and young children, was involved in a collision with a Toyota Celica.

Later another coach, again carrying women and young children, collided with a wall at the Chipping Village Hall car park. Despite these collisions all the guests attended the wedding celebrations.

Later Graham and Andrew Singh, along with others, took legal action against Hollins, arguing that they had been passengers on the coach that collided with the Toyota and received whiplash and other injuries as a result.

Niramella Singh made a compensation claim, saying that she suffered as a result of the collision at Chipping Village Hall.

In all, more than 70 claims were made, some of which resulted in payments by Hollins’ insurers.

However, some of the claims were contested by the insurers, arguing that the alleged injuries were exaggerated.

A civil trial was held at Manchester County Court in 2006, during which the judge saw enough evidence to persuade him that some claims were almost completely fabricated.

The trial was halted and the matter was passed to the police.

Evidence found that Andrew and Graham Singh were not even on the coach when it was involved in the collision.

DC Chris Harrison said: “These claims may well have caused Hollins, a small company, to go bust. This was not only an attempt to make a false insurance claim for money; this was also an insult to the civil courts system.

“These family members knowingly lied during a civil hearing in front of a judge.”