Surge in insurance scam tip-offs to fraud hotline
Sunday November 15 2009
IRISH punters may be a world away from the 'Deep Throat' who phoned Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in the 1976 film All the President's Men -- but they're certainly following in his footsteps.
Over 560 cases of alleged insurance fraud have been reported to the country's main fraud hotline in the first 10 months of 2009 -- twice the number of cases reported over the same months last year.
A whopping 229 of the cases reported so far this year -- about 41 per cent of the total -- arose from claims made for injuries from car accidents. Almost 15 per cent arose from claims made for damage to cars after an accident.
The tip-offs were made to Insurance Confidential, an anti-fraud hotline set up by the Irish Insurance Federation about six years ago.
Apart from staging car accidents and injuries, insurance fraudsters have got busier hoodwinking public liability insurers -- who cover businesses against any claims made for injury on their premises -- and house insurers.
Almost one in seven of the fraud tip-offs to the IIF related to public liability claims, while one in eight arose from dodgy house insurance claims -- an increase in the number of cases reported last year.
With the recession plunging more and more people into debt, insurers are on the look out for suspicious claims, particularly those linked to expensive cars.
- LOUISE McBRIDE
Originally published in
