Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Insurance firm detected £230,000 bogus claims each day

Aviva says it detected nearly quarter of a million pounds worth of bogus claims every day last year.
Aviva says it detected nearly quarter of a million pounds worth of bogus claims every day last year.

A major insurer detected nearly a quarter of a million pounds worth of bogus claims every day last year.

Aviva saw a 9.5% year-on-year jump in the number of fraudulent claims it declined in 2016, fuelled by increases in fraud detection across motor bodily injury, household and liability claims.

It declined one in 10 whiplash claims for proven or suspected fraud last year.

The insurance giant said, in total, it detected more than £85million of insurance fraud last year, or around £232,000 worth of bogus claims every day.  The majority of fraud it detects is from third parties who are not its customers.

Whiplash fraud remains a major concern, Aviva said, with bodily injury frauds such as exaggerated or bogus whiplash claims continuing to account for the majority of fraud the company identifies.

The insurer said it is currently investigating more than 16,000 suspect bodily injury claims.

Organised fraud accounts for much of the new injury fraud Aviva detects.  Last year the firm declined claims worth more than £25million linked to fraud rings.  Aviva is currently investigating more than 3,000 suspect whiplash claims linked to organised fraud.

A growing trend in bogus household claims stems from “serial claimants” fraudsters who make multiple claims, often for the same item, by purchasing dozens of home insurance policies using different aliases.

Policies are taken out with the sole aim of making fraudulent claims.  Aviva said, although these scams are still rare, it now detects more than six of them every month.

The most common fraudulent household claims were for accidental damage, theft and accidental loss.  The average value of fraudulent household claim was £1,315, with values ranging from as little as £25 up to £83,560.

Aviva said a large number of relatively low value claims indicates that fraudsters believe insurers will not scrutinise low-value fraud.

Liability claims, made against an employer’s liability or public liability policy is also an issue.  Aviva has more than 1,000 suspect liability claims under investigation.

The insurer said as the industry works together to clamp down on “crash-for-cash” vehicle collisions staged by criminals, it is believed that fraudsters are now moving into new areas and making bogus public and employer liability claims.

Tom Gardiner, head of fraud at Aviva, said:  “We vigorously defend our customers against fraudulent claims, even where it is not economic to do so, and will prosecute those people making fraudulent claims wherever possible.”