TWO men who made £167,000 from a ‘crash for cash’ scam have been ordered to pay back just £1 each and given 28 days in which to do it – in a ruling described as “absolutely shocking” by an MP.

Israr Hussain and Shazad Shad fleeced legal firms across the country with bogus road accident claims over a three-year period.

They stole the identities of elderly people in care homes and used the BBC Children in Need appeal’s bank account details as part of the scam.

Yesterday, a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Bradford Crown Court was told that the duo benefited to the tune of £167,246 during the spree.

But Judge Peter Benson could only impose a nominal order of £1 each on Hussain, 32, and 31-year-old Shad.

He told them: “I am satisfied that you have benefited from criminal conduct to the extent of £167,246.

“The only reasonable asset in each of your cases is £1. I make a confiscation order in each case of £1. It has to be paid within 28 days.”

Hussain, of Spencer Street, Keighley, and Shad, of Edensor Road, Keighley, pleaded guilty last August to committing fraud and conspiracy to money-launder, between January 1, 2011, and February 28, 2014.

During the period of the scam, there were 300 bogus claims.

Bradford West MP Naz Shah said innocent motorists would now have to pay for the pair’s greed.

“It is a mockery,” she said. “If you look at car insurance in Bradford, it is because of people like this that we have car insurance so high. And then to be asked to pay just £1 back each. “The real cost and severity is to the average motorists in Bradford who have to pay an extra premium because of people like them. What they have done punishes every single motorist in Bradford – that is not fair, that is not justice.

“I think it is absolutely shocking.

“Innocent motorists, hard-working people, are having to pay for the greed of these two people.”

Councillor David Ward (Lib Dem, Bolton and Undercliffe) campaigned against huge car insurance premiums inflicted on Bradford motorists by such scams when he was a local MP.

He slammed the court order, saying the insurance industry would have to pick up the tab and would likely pass it to innocent motorists.

He said: “It is a joke. It may be that they don’t have the money now, but it doesn’t mean it is something they should be able to avoid for the rest of their lives.

“If they come into money in the future, they should have to pay it back. Why should they get away with it?”

He added: “People feel it is worth the risk of not being insured, if you are faced with very high insurance premiums.

“The danger is that this sends out a signal to others that it is worth trying to get away with it.”

During the sentencing hearing last August, when Hussain and Shad were handed four-month jail terms suspended for two years, prosecutor Katherine Robinson said the pair were involved in “a lengthy, determined and sophisticated course of offending”.

Miss Robinson said Hussain and Shad claimed cash by sending bogus personal injury claims to law firms. Unlike some crash for cash frauds, this one did not involve any actual vehicle collisions.

The scammers used false names, addresses and forged identity papers to obtain referral fees for road accidents that never took place.

Some law firms suffered losses of more than £20,000. Staff had been laid off and one firm had closed down.

The scam was uncovered by City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, in partnership with West Yorkshire Police.

Caroline Jones, of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), said: “Staged motor accidents and scams put innocent motorists at risk and push up the cost of insurance premiums for honest customers. Insurers are determined to crackdown on this menace.”

The Ministry of Justice declined to comment on Proceeds of Crime guidelines.