Insurance Fraud? No Thanks!
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The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has announced this week that the number of fraudulent insurance claims made in the UK rose to a record high in 2009. There were 122,000 detected fraudulent claims, valued at £840m. This represents a 14% rise on the previous year.
However, the ABI said it was unable to tell whether the rising number was the result of more bogus claims being made or better detection by insurers.
Approximately 4% of all claims were bogus in 2009, a similar proportion to the previous year, suggesting there were more claims in total.
The figures showed that £410m of motor insurance fraud was detected, the highest figure by value. The most common bogus or exaggerated cases involved home insurance.
Some notable frauds in personal liability claims included a claim for head injuries sustained by falling over, when they were actually caused by being hit on the head with a baseball bat during a fight.
Honest customers rightly object to having to pay higher premiums to subsidise the fraudulent minority, which is why we should hope insurers continue to up their game in the war on the cheats.
Separate figures from the Motor Insurers’ Bureau show that the highest number of uninsured drivers are on the road in London, followed by Merseyside and Greater Manchester.
