INSURANCE fraud is a bigger problem that you might have guessed.
Insurers thwarted £25 million worth of fake claims a week in 2016, according to the latest industry figures.
This amounts to some 2,400 fraudulent claims a week and £1.3 billion worth throughout the entire year, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) found.
Despite the impressive figures, the numbers were generally down when compared with 2015 with a 5 per cent fall by number and a 3 per cent decline by value.
The ABI said a crackdown on stamping out organised fraud, including “crash for cash” staged motor collisions, contributed to the slight year-on-year fall in the number and cost of detected fraudulent claims.
This is a welcome news for drivers as The Sun Online previously reported that so-called “crash for cash”crimes – where low-speed collisions were exaggerated to scam the insurance industry – could be adding hundreds of pounds to honest motorists’ premiums .
However, the group also revealed there was a small rise in spur-of-the-moment motor insurance frauds up to 57,000 in 2016 from 54,000 in 2015.
The ABI said these opportunistic fraudsters will generally be otherwise law-abiding citizens, encouraged by “disreputable” claims management companies.
James Dalton, ABI’s director of general insurance policy, said the vast majority of insurance claims are genuine, with millions being paid to customers every day.
It added that “the industry does everything it can to keep premiums down and tackling fraud, which drives up prices for honest customers, is at the heart of that.”
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The Sun previously reported that insurance firms are clamping down on dishonest motorist and Horwich Farrelly is one firm leading the charge.
The firm tackled several cases in the last year, retrieving costs of £60,000.
The most recent successful legal battle saw Katherine Andrews, 47, from Dagenham stripped of a whiplash payout and ordered to pay Admiral’s costs of £3,409.
Here are some of some of the more unusual cheats exposed by the ABI:
Queue jumper, cue prison sentence.
A motorist received a six month prison sentence after he deliberately cut into a lane of cars queuing to get over the Seven Bridge.
He subsequently claimed that the victim had collided with him and that he had suffered a painful back injury.
Unfortunately for the fraudster, CCTV footage at the scene showed that he had caused the accident.
Sticky fingers musician can’t get no satisfaction
A fraudster who claimed £35,000 over three years on a sickness policy for depression and anxiety that he claimed left him housebound was caught out singing with a tribute band, Sticky Fingers.
The Whiplash Problem
WHIPLASH claims have increased by 50 per cent in the last decade, mainly because an explosion in crash-for-cash scams, adding hundreds of pounds on honest drivers’ premiums.
- Insurers and the government have fought hard to bring in reforms that cap payouts and increase the need for independent medical reports on injuries.
- But there remains a whiplash compensation problem as when the case is genuine it’s harder to uncover that it’s a fraudulent claim and payments are being exaggerated.
- The 2015 dishonesty laws have helped a little and more insurers are now tackling cases using this legislation to recover costs.
Massaging bogus claims
A registered GP was jailed for two years for making false medical claims against insurers worth £183,000 for physiotherapy sessions that never took place
Foul-mouthed cheat swears his way to court
A fraudster, who was abusive to insurance company staff to bully them into dealing with his fraudulent claims, was sentenced to 22 months.
These claims included injury he said he suffered following his cooker exploding, when in fact the cooker was undamaged.
Saddle sore
A woman admitted making three false burglary claims. One involved the alleged theft of horse saddles at a horse show. Another concerned household items, including horse saddles, that it was claimed had been damaged when moving house.
The insurer became suspicious when documents to support her claim contained spelling mistakes.
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