Fraud is the insurance industry’s favourite word when it comes to personal injury and justifying their recent ridiculous hikes in motor insurance premiums.
But, whereas they like to dedicate a lot of their time into lobbying for cuts to solicitor fees, increasing the small claims limit, introducing MEDCO and reducing the amount of compensation a genuine victim of injury should receive in a personal injury claim, fraud is a practice that many insurance firms are in fact facilitating themselves.
They are the creators of their own problem, as they continue to allow fraudsters to take out multiple insurance policies using credit cards (sometimes stolen). These Fraudsters then target innocent motorists and the same insurers refuse to compensate their unfortunate motorists for their losses and injuries.
What this all goes back to is the selection process that the insurers go through to determine who and who they will not insure upon application. Data from which, they continue to share with personal injury solicitors and the reason for this is that the data will reveal the shocking truth about the insurance industry’s selection process.
Questions have to be asked about security checks and whether the correct processes are in place and are being carried out or whether any security checks are being carried out at all.
This is not the unfortunate road user who just so happens to have had a little bit of bad luck on the road. We are talking about professional fraudsters who are deliberately involving themselves in road traffic accidents, in order to claim for compensation themselves against the innocent road user who they target to be a part of this scam.
These sorts of incidents, which are labelled as ‘crash for cash’ accidents, have been the backbone of the insurance industry’s appeal for reform. They are used as an example of dishonesty on the roads, and are a big component of the alleged ‘compensation culture’, which has been cooked up by the insurers, in order to push for more restrictions on legal representation. They are also used as a justification for the hike on insurance premiums, year upon year.
With ‘crash for cash’ accidents there are only two winners, should they be successful with their carefully targeted plans. The fraudsters who commit the crimes and the insurers, as the increase of this sort of incident provides the fuel to all of their motives.
The innocent driver, who has been the target for these accidents, faces a years of hell proceeding the accident, as they are usually left suffering the physical effects of the accident through personal injury, the financial burden because the insurers refuse to defend claims of this nature, not to mention the further financial burdens of being sued themselves what constitutes to organised crime.
It should also be taken into account that there insurance policy will then be impacted and increased in the future, costing them even more money and dragging even more anguish into their lives and the worst thing about this is that it could have been avoided if the insurance company had done the relevant security checks and not allowed these persistent offenders to take out yet another insurance policy.
The innocent victim is not the only one who bears the brunt of this either. You might be sat at home thinking, well this hasn’t happened to me so why would I care. At the same time you may notice that your insurance premium has crept up from last year’s total and asking why you are facing having to pay more to insure your vehicle.
This increase in car insurance premiums is caused by nefarious activities, such as the ones we are describing, and these incidents are facilitated by the very same people who are passing on the additional cost of fraudulent claims to road users like you, in the form of massively increased insurance premiums. All of which is done while the insurers continue to bang the ‘fraudulent claim’ in order to strip genuine accident victims of their access to justice.
Partner at Scott Rees and Co Solicitors, David Byrne, claims that enough is enough and that it was time the insurers wised up and helped eradicate the issue once and for all.
He said: “The insurance industry have been happy to bang on about personal injury solicitors encouraging fraud within the industry, when it is clear that they have not been doing all that they can to help do this.”
“There is no reason that serial claimants should be offered multiple policies by the insurers, which makes you wonder whether the correct security checks are in fact being carried out, as this is something that would be detected.”
“I have no idea why insurers continuously allow this to happen but in doing so they are affectively facilitating criminal accident claims and brining on innocent drivers, years of misery and hell, as they are left to deal with the aftermath of the accidents.”
“It is simply not right and it is time the insurers to stand up and take responsibility for this, rather than laying the blame a the personal injury solicitors and continuing to punish road users by passing on additional cost, born by the fraudulent claims that are the result of their lack of vigilance, through massively increased insurance premiums.”
“One way that insurers can help personal injury solicitors define what is and what isn’t fraudulent is to share their data with us, which is something our profession has campaigned for tirelessly, yet still doesn’t seem to happen. It can allow us to make a clear judgement on a claimant before pursuing with their claim and would almost certainly allow us to cast a net on repeat fraudsters, which has a knock on, positive affect for all parties.”
“As things stand, the insurers are the creators of their own problems. By not carrying out the correct security checks, by allowing serial claimants to take out further policies with them and by refusing to share their own fraud data, they continue to empower the fraudulent motorist to continue to commit criminal activity and are almost incentivising them by defending against claims from genuine, innocent victims.”
“The personal injury profession have suffered the wrath of Government reform because we were supposedly not doing enough to prevent fraudulent activity. As a result Claims Management Companies have perished, as have many legal firms, whose livelihoods were destroyed by the crippling consequences of LASPO and the Jackson Reforms. So how the insurance industry has not been similarly sanctioned for what is basically a systematic failure to eradicate fraud from the profession is beyond me.”