Insurers expose 350 insurance fraud attempts a day
Value of frauds detected at record high.
Insurers caught 130,000 fraudulent claims last year, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
That’s an increase of 9% on the previous year, and the equivalent of 350 claims a day.
The most common kind of fraud was motor insurance, with 67,000 sham claims identified, up 12% on 2013. These also represented the highest value at £835 million.
The number of liability insurance frauds (for ‘slip and trip’ claims and the like) detected jumped in number by an enormous 75% to 19,800.
Meanwhile, the discovery of property fraud, both domestic and commercial, has fallen by 29% to 24,533 since 2013. The ABI attributes this to the “strong deterrent message hitting home”.
The scams
The fraudsters who have been caught include this man, Waheed Iqbal, who attempted to claim £10,000 after ‘slipping’ on a wet bag in a Lidl store.
However, CCTV footage shows him taking his time, looking up and down the aisle, before placing himself on the floor and alerting a fellow shopper. Lidl's insurer AIG referred the case to London Police's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department.
Iqbal was sentenced to four months imprisonment for fraud by false representation to Lidl and AIG, and six months for another injury scam he attempted, which took place in a gym.
In a separate case, a crash between a bus and a car in Manchester was orchestrated, with the aim of claiming £500,000 from insurers.
However, detectives deduced that Tariq Iqbal slammed on the brakes of his Mercedes to cause the crash, while bus inspector Asan Akram, on board the bus, would later report on the incident to convince insurers that the collision was a genuine accident.
Police found that the pair had made contact to each other using their mobile phones over 100 times in the days leading up to the crash.
Other examples highlighted by the ABI included a postman who had claimed an accident at work left him disabled, only for footage of him performing at a music festival to emerge. There was also the council benefits officer who took out travel insurance with a number of insurers, then claiming for cancellation of holiday due to ill health using medical certificates on which he had forged his GP's signature.
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Cracking down on fraud
That deterrent message is matched by insurers cracking down on fraud where it happens. According to James Dalton, the ABI’s Director of General Insurance Policy, insurance cheats are “now more likely to get caught than ever before.”
He says that whether people are making dishonest claims or lying when applying for cover, they face “long-lasting and serious consequences. As well as the possibility of serving a custodial sentence, they will find it difficult to obtain vital financial services such as mortgages and loans.”
The more fraud that is detected, the better for everyone. Insurers argue that fraudulent claims push up premium prices for the rest of us.
However, there are other benefits to a reduction in fraud. There are dangers posed to innocent motorists by ‘crash for cash’ frauds, where car accidents are staged, for example. A reduction in these incidents would also free up resources – ambulances, police officers – that might otherwise be directed to more pressing emergencies.
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