Sunday night I went over to a "conflict zone" where the farmers were fighting the federation over a commodity called "onion head". Unfortunately, I had about ten tonnes of the stuff in my cargo hold, so as soon as I got scanned, the federation opened fire on me. Luckily, I had enough money to pay for the insurance on my ship, so I got a new one and went back. I didn't slow down as I arrived and rammed into the capital ship that was arriving at the same time.
Third time's a charm - I managed to grab a quick vid of the capital ship arriving, then I went off for a fight and managed to bank 51,000 before getting blown up. Again.
It's taken me about four hours in the meantime (on and off) to get my finances back to the point where I can go in and have a scrap or two and still have enough money for insurance if I'm blown up.