Football fans face jail in 'crash for cash' scam after coachload of passengers claimed they were injured in minor collision... then ran across the road into pub Ben Carberry, Liam Gray and Kevin Hamilton plead guilty to fraud charges They set up crash during trip from Liverpool to Manchester dog track All 30 coach passengers claimed they had whiplash following tiny collision But the driver later saw them running across dual carriageway into the pub Three football fans are facing jail after they admitted to staging a 'crash for cash' insurance scam while travelling on a coach trip to the local dog track. Ben Carberry, Liam Gray and Kevin Hamilton orchestrated a minor collision between a Renault Megane and a coach carrying 30 passengers from Liverpool to Manchester's Belle Vue greyhound racing track. All the passengers claimed to have suffered whiplash in the crash, which the coach driver did not even notice - but were apparently seen running into a pub later the same evening. Their aim was to claim up to £150,000 in insurance claims, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. Fraud: Ben Carberry, left, and Liam Gray, right, have admitted orchestrating a 'crash for cash' scam Driver: Kevin Hamilton accepted money to collide with a coach containing 30 passengers After the crash, which happened on a roundabout between the East Lancashire Road and the M57, and which the coach driver did not notice, passengers on the coach complained they had suffered personal injuries. The passengers then asked to go back to Bootle, Liverpool, and the coach driver watched on 'amused' as they ran across a dual carriageway to go to the pub, it is alleged. All 30 passengers went on to make insurance claims for whiplash after the incident on December 9, 2011. But investigators later found a message on a phone belonging to law student Carberry, 21, in which he offered to pay 'a grand' for 'someone to do a crash', according to prosecutors. It emerged that Gray, 26, obtained the car for Hamilton, 36, while Carberry arranged the coach and the group booking to the dog track, then Hamilton purposefully drove the car into the coach. Carberry and Gray became friends through travelling to Everton games, according to the prosecution, while Gray knew Hamilton as he had lived close to him at a previous address. Gray, from Fazakerley, Carberry, from Liverpool city centre, and Hamilton, from Norris Green, each admitted one count of conspiring to commit fraud together with others unknown when they appeared yesterday at Southwark Crown Court. A fourth suspect, Joe Hindley, 22, was charged but found not guilty after the prosecution offered no evidence against him. The prosecution says Carberry sent a text to another passenger on the coach saying: 'Need someone to do a crash. Do you know anyone? Paying a grand. Carberry had not missed an Everton home or away game in years and regularly arranged coaches for travelling fans. On this trip, the prosecution says, he paid coach driver Paul Woodruff when he picked up the men, all aged between 18 and 25, at The Mons pub in Bootle. Twenty minutes into the journey, Mr Woodruff slowed down to give way at a roundabout and, as he continued on to it, passengers shouted for him to stop. Having pulled over, Mr Woodruff got off and saw Hamilton and a man alleged to be Gray, who pulled a hoodie over his head and walked away, the prosecution says. Court: The trio pleaded guilty to the fraud yesterday at Southwark Crown Court, pictured Mr Woodruff saw that there was minor damage to the vehicles and exchanged details with Hamilton. He later gave his passengers a piece of paper on which to write their details if they were injured. But he noted that all the passengers on the coach wrote their names to say they were injured, then was amused to see them all run across the dual carriageway and into the pub after arriving back in Bootle. Unemployed Hamilton later claimed he was driving to see his cousin to deliver Christmas presents when the collision happened. He told police he crashed into the coach at 30mph because he was distracted by the car's fuse box, which was attached with Blu Tack and had fallen off. Fans: Carberry and Gray became friends over years of attending Everton matches at Goodison Park, pictured Hamilton later told police that Gray bought the Megane for him for about £300 and arranged the insurance after he had asked for help with this because he was not confident on the phone and did not know how to use the internet - even though he had a Facebook account. When the men were arrested, Mr Hindley admitted that the collision was 'pre-arranged and staged', according to prosecutors. The 30 claims for whiplash were worth up to £5,000 each, bringing the cost up to a maximum of £150,000. The three men will appear in court at a later date for sentencing.