Fraudulent insurance claims rocket

The Association of British Insurers has revealed that insurers detected fraudulent insurance claims worth a whopping £1.3 billion last year.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has revealed that insurers detected a record level of attempted insurance fraud in 2013, totalling £1.3 billion, up 18% on 2012.

To put that figure into another criminal context, it’s twice as high as the UK’s shoplifting bill.

Calls from the public reporting suspected fraud rose by 32% in 2013 to 6,060 calls in total.

Bogus claims

Insurers across the UK detected a total of 118,500 claims which were made on the basis of fictional or falsified events. That’s the equivalent of 2,279 a week, and the average fraud value found across all types of insurance products was £10,813.

Fraudulent motor insurance claims were the most common of all. AA Insurance reports that it alone identifies over 100 attempts at fraud every week. 59,900 dishonest claims totalled a value of £811 million, up 32% on the previous year.

However, the number and value of property insurance frauds fell to 35,000 frauds, worth a total of £137 million.

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Making examples of the cheats

Insurance cheats who faced the music last year included sixty people convicted of ‘crash for cash’ accident fraud which involved over £514,000 in claims from over 25 vehicle crashes.

A pro golfer claimed £8,000 on his income protection policy after a knee injury left him ‘unable’ to work. He was caught out on camera giving gold lessons, and ordered to complete 140 hours of unpaid community work.

And a woman was jailed for 22 months after making false claims of a series of street robberies, where items like designer clothes and laptops were stolen.

Investigations by the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department have so far led to 470 arrests and 85 prosecutions of insurance fraudsters since it was established in 2011.

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