Lost luggage, ice cream van accidents and bus crashes all contributed to more than 130,000 fraudulent claims in 2015 – the equivalent of 2,500 per week.
Motor claims were the most common of frauds, according to the figures released by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), totalling 70,000 instances amounting to a value of £800m.
Overall, fraudulent claims are down on last year, while ‘slip and trip’ claims have increased by a third to 26,900, with a value of £391m.
Individual cases include an aircraft engineer who claimed £189,000 of luggage for an empty suitcase and 19 fraudsters laughing as they feigned whiplash injury after faking a bus crash.
In May 2015 partners Rafal Sikorski, 29, and Anna Radomska, 31 made separate claims for over £6,000 after what investigators believe to be a staged collision. Both asserted they suffered limiting injuries, only for Sikorski to be found entering a martial arts competition in the Philippines, and Radomska horse riding. Both were found out after posting their activities on Facebook.
James Dalton, director of general insurance policy at ABI, said that greater efforts were being made on holding those who cheat in insurance accountable. “The chances of getting caught have never been greater” he said. “The scale of frauds uncovered shows that the industry’s £200m a year investment in tackling fraud is paying dividends”.
Detective Chief Inspector Oliver Little, of IFED, said “A lot of insurance fraud is stopped by the industry but, when they succeed, fraudsters take money from all of us. What these figures can’t show is the links we’ve seen in a hardcore of organised criminals between crash for cash and other serious organised crime. Nor can these figures do justice to the real danger of serious injury or death these people bring to our roads”.
