A man, when he was young, got into a small car accident. The car was insured under the name of his mother – so he had put down that his mother was driving at the time of the accident and the insurance company fixed the car of the person he had hit. Many years later this man is a pious believer and wants to atone for this. The insurance company is in the name of bank in a western country, there is no direct owner per se (it’s a public company on the stock exchange). It’s difficult for the man to call up the company and tell then of what had happened when he is younger as
1) He does not know what the process will be and he fears possible legal charges
2) Possible implication of his mother as the policy was in her name
3) The embarrassment of his mistake.

What are his options here? Is tawba enough for him? There is no specific person who he perhaps owes money too, just a company- so what does he do?

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1- If contacting the insurance company will put his mother in a difficult situation or cause her harm/difficulty, then he should avoid doing that.

2- If the insurance company knew that he was driving and not his mother, would they have fixed the car or they would not have paid anything?

3- If the company is a public company (government company) then it’s ok he can repent and doesn’t need to do anything now. If it’s a private company, he can do the following:

-Call them and anonymously ask them about this scenario. Ask them if years ago someone did this, what’s your company policy towards that? Do you demand that he pays you back or no? It’s probable they say they don’t demand compensation.

-If they said they would demand compensation in such a case, he can estimate how much it cost to fix the car, and then he can anonymously donate that amount to the insurance company.