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08

One insurance scam detected every minute in the UK 

Open-access content Thursday 23rd August 2018

More than half a million insurance frauds took place in the UK last year, amounting to one scam every minute, analysis from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) reveals.

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The findings show that dishonest claims accounted for 113,000 of the 562,000 scams detected in 2017, with their value rising by 1% from the previous year to around £1.3bn.

The actual number of false claims fell by 8%, while there were 449,000 dishonest insurance applications recorded, such as when details like age or claims history are deliberately misstated.

ABI director of general insurance policy, James Dalton said: "The vast majority of 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. There will be no let-up in the crackdown on cheats."

The findings show that organised frauds, such as staged motor accidents, fell by 22% last year following investigations by the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) and the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).

The IFED has secured over 400 court convictions for fraud since its formation in 2006.

It was also found that the number of fraudulent property insurance claims dropped by 11% to 22,000, with a value of £100m.

However, the value of fraudulent motor insurance claims rose by 4% to £775m, with the number of scams increasingly slightly to 67,000.

Motor insurance also made up the bulk of the dishonest applications recorded, and typically involved inaccurate information on an applicant's occupation and driving record.

IFB director, Ben Fletcher, said: "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. These numbers show the complexity of the task insurers have fighting fraud." 

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This article appeared in our August 2018 issue of The Actuary.
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