Mark Langford: the ambulance chaser who came a cropper

He was the 'standard-bearer for Britain's compensation culture', the failed solicitor turned 'insurance pirate', prepared to take on everyone from safari parks to prisons. We profile Mark Langford of The Accident Group.

"For a man who built his fortune on accidents, real or imagined, the one that's been waiting to happen to Mark Langford was a long time coming," says The Independent on Sunday. When Langford's compensation firm, The Accident Group motto: "where there's blame there's a claim" went bust in 2003, he famously sacked his employees by text and decamped to Marbella with his millions, leaving staff and clients without a penny. Langford thought he was "untouchable", but last week, the authorities finally caught up with him. As Langford and his wife and co-director, Debbie, prepared to host a lavish birthday party for their daughter on board their £1.5m yacht, bailiffs served up two writs totalling £4.1m.

Brought up in Greater Manchester, Langford, 42, had trained as a solicitor but failed to qualify. Instead, he started Motorlaw, a claims company, and then in 1999, The Accident Group (TAG). In its 2002 heyday, TAG was "the standard bearer for Britain's burgeoning compensation culture", says The Daily Telegraph. Who could resist its no win, no fee promises? "Very few it seemed, as businesses, councils and even prisons and condom manufacturers found to their dismay." No grumble was too trivial, no claim too bizarre. A group of safari park visitors sued because they drove into a llama and suffered "whiplash", for example. The driver behind all this was the scrapping of legal aid for routine accident claims in 1998, says The Times.

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