Insurance fraud not as serious as in UK

Wednesday 18 June 2014

Closer relationship between insurers and brokers in the local close-knit communities of the Channel Islands is the reason why insurance fraud is not as serious as on the mainland, according to one expert.

Rob Hewlett from Rossborough Insurance – the general and healthcare insurance broking group operating in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man – said: “Thankfully in the Channel Islands, it is a different story and we don’t suffer as much. It’s a much smaller, close-knit community and so insurers and brokers have a much closer relationship with each other and their customers and so the opportunities simply aren’t there.”

Insurance companies in the UK are taking a tough approach to combat fraud as national figures show that the value of fraudulent claims has risen to a record £1.3 billion.

The latest figures from the Association of British Insurers show that insurers detected 118,500 bogus or exaggerated insurance claims in 2013, equivalent to 2,279 a week. The average fraud detected across all types of insurance products was £10,813. While there was a small fall in the number of detected frauds, their value, at £1.3 billion, was up 18% on 2012.

Mr Hewlett said: “The figures from ABI are quite shocking when you consider that insurance fraud is not a victimless crime and actually impacts on every person with an insurance policy. Not only do fraudulent claims take time to deal with, which in turn means a delay in genuine claims being looked at, but it also increases premiums.”

Examples of convictions in the UK in 2013 included 60 people, including seven members of the same family, convicted for “crash for cash” staged accidents, a woman jailed for 22 months following a series of invented street robberies and a vet jailed for two years for inventing claims totalling nearly £200,000 for treating non-existent pets.