Insurance firm Aviva uncovered £250,000 worth of insurance scams every day in 2016 for whiplash and theft
Aviva turned down £85million worth of fraudulent claims
LEADING insurance firm Aviva says it uncovered £250,000 worth of bogus claims every day last year.
It said the £85million worth of fraudulent claims turned down in 2016 was a rise of almost ten per cent on the previous year.
Most of the fraud was from third parties who were not its customers. Almost six in ten bogus claims were for “bodily injuries” — such as exaggerated or non-existent whiplash.
The company said it refused to pay out in one in 10 whiplash claims for proven or suspected fraud.
Aviva said it is currently investigating more than 16,000 suspect bodily injury claims.
The firm also found more than £25million worth of scams linked to organised fraud rings.
Another growing trend involves serial claimants — swindlers who make multiple claims, often for the same item, by buying dozens of home insurance policies using aliases.
Policies are taken out with the sole aim of making bogus claims.
MOST READ IN MONEY
The most common fraudulent household claims are for accidental damage, theft and loss.
The average value of a dodgy 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 scams.
Tom Gardiner, head of fraud at Aviva, said action need to be taken to crack down on “cash-for-crash” cons — where drivers deliberately engineer an accident.
He added: “The growing number of these scams is putting innocent motorists at risk and scarce public resources are diverted from real need, such as emergency services, GP and A&E time.
“We prosecute people making fraudulent claims wherever possible.”