Car insurance fraud: The fight
against it
26 Jan 2011
by Donald MacKenzie
This is the twelfth article in our 'car
insurance fraud' blog series. Here, we will look at the fight
against car insurance
fraud, that is, what's in place and what more is needed.
In an earlier article in this series, Car insurance fraud:
The Police Point of View, we presented the police view that
resourcing of the fight against car insurance fraud was inadequate and
that investment in it had been falling. Police also lack the expertise
needed and the cross-boundary policing required to easily gather
evidence on the criminal gangs filing multiple fraudulent claims that
can run to millions of pounds.
The police have called for new anti-fraud regional units staffed by
police and insurance industry workers that are capable of working
across police regional boundaries and with the expertise on board to
effectively do the job.
It has been suggested that a £1 surcharge on car insurance
premiums could be used to resource new law enforcement services of this
type.
The Insurance Fraud
Bureau (IFB) since its inception in 2006 has been working to combat
car insurance fraud across the industry. Their collection of claims and
application form data from all the car insurance providers allows them
to identify fraudulent patterns of claims that would otherwise be
undetected.
The IFB can also help insurers to identify fronting or where an applicant has
provided an inaccurate
claims history.
The government is also helping the fight against car insurance fraud in
various ways. One of these is to allow car
insurance providers to check if a driver has points on their license,
a development that will start later this year. Another relates to their
clampdown on
claims management companies that can encourage injury claims of
questionable vailidity.
The car insurance companies themselves, currently with significant
financial problems having made recent losses, are also more focused on
stamping out fraud and it will become increasingly more difficult for
drivers to misrepresent their true circumstances on application forms
without being detected in 2011.
The next article in
this 'car insurance
fraud' blog series:
Car insurance fraud: The Conclusions
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