Fraudulent motor insurance claims have soared by more than 70 per cent in the
past four years, making the car the No 1 insurance fraud target. The
Association of British Insurers will announce today that fraudsters are
submitting dishonest motor claims of £5 million a week.
Insurance companies and fraud experts say that the credit crunch has forced
families struggling to meet their hire purchase payments to take desperate
measures.
Gabrielle Stewart, technical director at Absolute, a firm that detects fraud
on behalf of major insurers, said: “There will always be greed, there will
always be people who want something for nothing. At the moment, however,
people have genuine financial problems. Low-income families and those with
poor credit records are stuck with mortgages which they can no longer move
on to cheaper rates, they are living beyond their means and they cannot take
out personal loans. Some are going to extreme lengths, such as making
fraudulent motor claims, when they fall behind on their hire purchase
payments.”
Four years ago, insurance companies identified 14,000 people who had made
false motor insurance claims. Last year the number was 24,000.
One man who claimed his car had been stolen admitted that he had pushed it
over a cliff after it was pointed out that a local newspaper had carried a
picture of his wrecked car three days before the alleged theft. He said he
needed the insurance money to pay HP debts.
Motor insurance scams add about £40 a year to the premiums of law-abiding
drivers.
As for insurance fraud as a whole, which includes motor, household, travel and
liability cover, insurance firms uncovered a total of 91,000 fraudulent
claims last year, amounting to £557 million. Four years ago the figure was
£263 million.
Money
Central: the 10 professions most likely to cause a car crash
Here's a thought for insurance companies - wear the cost of fraud from your excessive profits and stop hiking up law abiding people's premiums. I can imagine how popular that suggestion will be.
A. Watson, Glasgow,
In any organisation, receipts are mandatory for any expense claimed. other than for piffling amounts. MPs are strangers to reality and living in cloud cuckoo land if they do not see how distasteful their shilly-shallying is becoming
Frank Greaney, Formby, Liverpool
Well done Labour for forcing people to become liars and thieves. Add to this number, those who are fraudulently claiming 'Incapacity benefit' and it's nearly the entire country isn't it? Is there anyone left that Labour hasn't compromised in order to fund the rich? They HAVE to go
judy, Liverpool, England
If the insurance companies know how much money is being defrauded, they must know who is doing the defrauding. If this is the case why pay the money out or, having paid the money out, why don't they make efforts to claim it back?
David Leslie, Perth, Scotland
"cut your cloth to suit your means" springs to mind. It's never fun worrying about bills but if you can't afford a car then you shouldn't be running one. We can't afford a second car so I use public transport for the 1.5 hour each way commute - a journey which would only take 20 minutes by car!!
Becky , Leeds,
Once again the prudent and the honest have to pay extra to subsidise those who won't live within their means,and the dishonest.Just like the council tax.
David G, Altrincham, England
Not really a surprise- look around at all the newish cars on the road bought by people who believed the idea that their increased house prices equals them actually being worth that amount of money or deserving of it.
Prudence in all things seems to be the only way to get through life happily.
MGB, Carmarthen, Wales