Insurance fraud 'puts up premiums for honest customers'
Published On 27 January 2008
The insurance industry will be looking to tackle fraud in the coming year, an industry expert has said.Figures released recently by Friends Provident suggested that five per cent of consumers in the UK have lied when applying for insurance.
However, Graeme Trudgill, technical and corporate affairs executive at the British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba) explained that insurance fraud had serious consequences and could mean premiums rose for all customers.
He said: "The insurance industry pays out over £1 billion a year in fraudulent claims and it is a big worry.
"Unfortunately, there will always be people out there who do try and cheat the system but I think that we are becoming more aware, more alert and we'll be more able to respond to it and the canoeists of this world going forth … Fraudsters will put up everyone else's premiums."
Interestingly, the Friends Provident survey showed that, when it came to insurance fraud, crime does not pay. The study indicated that 54 per cent of consumers believed that anyone who made a fraudulent claim should be denied all possible payouts in the future.
