Some 562,000 insurance frauds were detected by insurers in 2017, reports the trade body the Association of British Insurers (ABI). Most, 449,000, were dishonest insurance applications (where details such as age, address, or claims history are deliberately mis-stated or withheld, typically to seek cheaper motor insurance cover) rather than claims.
The number of dishonest insurance claims, at 113,000, were valued at £1.3 billion. The number was down 8pc on 2016, while their value rose by 1pc. The value of fraudulent detected motor insurance claims, at £775m, rose by 4pc on 2016. The number of these frauds, at 67,000, showed a small rise. Fraudulent property insurance claims fell. The number detected dropped by 11pc on 2016 to 22,000, with a value of £100m.
The ABI disclosed some cases; such as the bodybuilder, who claimed £150,000 for a back injury, exposed when he was filmed doing a press-up challenge. A student was convicted after attempting to claim £14,000 through six invented claims following a trip to Venice, including the alleged loss of an iPod, laptop and designer watch. Cases range from fakd road traffic injuries to fake motor insurance policies sold to the unsuspecting.
James Dalton, ABI’s Director, General Insurance Policy, said: “The vast majority of insurance customers are honest, and they rightly resent fraudsters pushing up their insurance costs. This is why the industry makes no apology for spending around £250m a year on measures to tackle insurance fraud. It is good that organised fraud fell, especially as scams like staged accidents can often put lives at risk and involve huge amounts of money. But, with the Insurance Fraud Bureau currently investigating a rising number of suspected insurance frauds, there will be no let-up in the crackdown on the insurance cheats. The rise in opportunistic motor fraud highlights that the stricter regulation of claims management companies, some of whom encourage dishonest claims, cannot come in soon enough.”
Ben Fletcher, Director of the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), said: “These numbers go to show the complexity of the task that insurers and the industry have in fighting insurance fraud. IFB has seen a rise in the number of live investigations, as well as a more diverse range of fraudulent behaviours, as these criminals move to target new areas. Fraudsters are tenacious and regularly change their methods, moving between products, sectors and approaches. They will exploit any area they are able, and the industry faces a constant battle to stay one step ahead. We don’t underestimate the challenge we face; insurance fraud is an issue that the industry takes very seriously and has been investing heavily in combatting in recent years. These results are encouraging and demonstrate to the would-be fraudster that the insurance industry is a hostile environment and every effort is being made to catch and stop them.”
The IFB’s Cheatline is a free and confidential way for anyone to report insurance fraud: 0800 422 0421.
