Insurance Fraud Bureau: Crash for cash style fraud drops almost £60m in three years as criminals move onto new claims
Crash for cash style fraud – where people stage motor accidents to claim fraudulently on insurance – has dropped by nearly £60m in the last three years, according to a report by the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) released today.
Figures from the fraud-fighting not-for-profit found that the total value of such scams is now worth £336m, compared to £392m in 2012.
But the IFB warned that the fraudsters had moved on to other types of claims rather than completely gone away.
“While today’s figures prove that the insurance industry, in partnership with police, is closing the net on crash for cash fraudsters, our work is far from done,” said Ben Fletcher, director of the IFB. “Fuelled by greed, insurance cheats still put innocent members of the public in grave danger when they deliberately cause crashes.”
And David Hertzell, head of the government’s Fraud Taskforce, said: “Fraud is anti-social. It is the honest customer that ultimately picks up the bill for insurance cheats and it’s the lives of innocent motorists being gambled with when a crash for cash fraudster stamps on their brakes on busy roads.”