THE head of a family who operated Britain's biggest fraud factory by faking car crashes and serious injuries has died in prison.

Mohammed Sharif, 57, died of natural causes on Saturday in Preston Prison where he was awaiting sentence for his part in the £3million conspiracy to defraud insurance companies and the benefits system.

He had been in the jail for six weeks following his conviction at Preston Crown Court.

Sharif, of Snow Street, Blackburn, his children and relatives were trapped by a police inquiry code named Operation Ocarina after six years of large scale fraud.

The judge who heard the trial had warned them that they will almost certainly all be sent to jail and remanded Sharif in custody and the other defendants on bail for sentencing on May 21.

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