Insurance fraud rises by £140m a year, industry body says
The Association of British Insurers says fraudulent insurance claims have risen by around £140 million a year, with motor cover and higher-value scams among the cases it highlights.
How it was covered
- BBC One was the only channel found covering it.
- Channel 5, BBC News, BBC Two, Channel 4, GB News, ITV and Sky News: not found in tracked broadcasts.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story. Facts only one channel reported are attributed to it.
Fraudulent insurance claims have risen by around £140 million a year, according to the Association of British Insurers. The industry body said the average bogus claim is now worth more than £14,300. It added that the overall value of fraudulent insurance claims was up 14% on the year before, and that the figures suggest fraudsters are targeting higher-value scams.
A police officer described the number of scams being detected as just the tip of the iceberg. The ABI gave examples of the cases behind the figures. One man included expensive Lego sets in a series of claims for stolen items. He was paid out more than £14,000 by his insurer, had to pay the money back after an investigation found his claims were not genuine, and was jailed for 28 months.
In another case, a man staged a number of car crashes with people he had met online in order to make claims. He was jailed for 20 months. The ABI said more than half of bogus claims are on motor insurance.
The cost of this fraud is felt across the insurance industry. The report said it also ends up costing everyone through higher insurance premiums.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| The Association of British Insurers reported that fraudulent insurance claims rose by around £140 million a year and by 14% year on year, with the average bogus claim now worth more than £14,300. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
BBC ONE West led on the Association of British Insurers' figures and treated them as a straightforward consumer and crime story. It gave the headline rise, the average bogus claim value, and examples including the Lego case and staged car crashes. The report stressed that fraud pushes up premiums for all policyholders.
- “fraudulent insurance claims have increased by around £140 million a year”
- “Just the tip of the iceberg was how one police officer described the number of scams being detected.”
- “it also ends up costing all of us, too, in the shape of higher insurance premiums.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.