Fraudulent insurance claims to avoid debt management need?

Individuals may be filing fake insurance claims in an effort to relieve debt troubles, new figures have suggested.

Research carried out by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) revealed people in Britain make more than 2,300 fraudulent claims every week.

The figures showed there are currently more of these bogus attempts than there ever have been before.

In 2009, 122,000 dishonest insurance claims were reported, marking a 14 per cent rise from 2008.

These added up to a total value of £840 million.

Of highest value were motor insurance claims, which amounted to around £410 million, while the most common examples involved home insurance.

More than 62,000 bogus or exaggerated claims were made in relation to property contents last year.

It meant fake claims-by-cost scenarios were double the amount recorded just five years ago.

Another area in which claims were often made was personal injuries, as 8,500 instances were reported.

Examples of these false events included a man alleging to have tripped over a pothole in the street, a woman stating she had stumbled over a loose pavement and head injuries alleged to have been the result of falling over. Recently, two women who were arrested for staging a fake car crash in order to claim insurance money were said to have been motivated by their debt problems.

Nick Starling, the ABI’s director of general insurance and health, commented: “Our honest customers rightly object to having to pay higher premiums to subsidise the fraudulent minority, which is why insurers continue to up their game in the war on cheats.”

A recently released Confused.com study revealed people in Britain are paying an average of £18,500 on essential bills every year.

By Amy White