Insurers uncover 70% more motor claim fraud
3rd, July 2008
An Association of British Insurers (ABI) survey has shown that over the last 3 years insurers have identified 70% more motor fraud equating to £5 million worth of claims each week.
The ABI conduct a motor fraud survey among their members every year. All the major insurers and groups submit estimates of the amount of fraud they have detected. This year’s survey uncovered that 24,000 fraudulent motor insurance claims, worth £260 million, were detected last year (£5 million every week). This level of fraud has risen over time and this year’s total is 70% higher then three years ago.
Some of the examples of fraudsters revealed by insurers included a women who trashed her house during an argument with her partner who submitted a claim that her land rover had caused the damage when her foot slipped on the break. Another car owner couldn’t afford hire purchase payments so he pushed his car off a cliff and claimed it had been stolen. And a Rolls Royce owner who took off front grill, hubcaps, steering wheel, seats and bonnet mascot put them in his house and claimed they had been stolen to get his hands on £10,000.
An ABI spokesperson said: “This is a reliable estimate of fraud detection, which covers 80% of the insurance market including all the major insurers and insurance groups.”
Nick Starling, the ABI’s Director of General Insurance and Health, said: “Insurance fraud is no victimless crime. Honest motorists pay through higher insurance premiums – an extra £40 a year on average. This is why insurers are ramping up their crackdown to weed out the cheats.
Anyone committing insurance fraud is more likely to get caught, risks a criminal record, and will find future insurance and credit harder to obtain and more expensive.”
