Car accident insurance fraud on the rise in the UK

Car accident insurance fraud on the up within the UK.

The motor insurance industry has had a great deal of criticism in recent months concerning rocketing premium costs. Many motorists have experienced their premiums increased by approximately 40%, despite not having been involved in a collision. There was a time an unblemished driving history was rewarded with cheap insurance charges, however it would seem like this is not the case.

The insurance industry has reacted towards criticism by mentioning the grounds behind the rapidly increasing premium prices. They feel that claim based fraud is increasing fast and therefore the business is wasting approximately £300 million yearly on fraudulent staged accident claims.

One typical scam involves two vehicle owners conspiring to make a staged accident where one driver readily accepts liability with a view to allowing one other driver to generate a claim against their own policy. The claims then become multilayered with everything from the recovery charge through to storage and hire costs being reclaimed through the unsuspecting insurer. The issue with scams of this nature, is they are extremely hard to detect and even more challenging to repudiate. However insurers are in possession of more complex detection systems set up along with the assistance of a very advanced IT system, so substantial progress is being created in defeating the fraud gangs who over several years have enjoyed making a living on the back of honest motorists.

Another area which has come under fire is that of the whiplash compensation culture that is now allegedly a big part of the psyche in the UK. It's believed that up to 3 from every 10 motorists involved with an accident, may go onto produce a whiplash related claim. Many experts have explained this as being a culturally acceptable fraud through the belief that only 40% of whiplash claims have been demonstrated to be genuine and many people are having an attempt at making a claim. This is a remarkable statistic and does indicate that many injured parties may well be exaggerating their problems in order to maximise their compensation prospects.However this may be a very harsh judgement, and one which the legal industry entirely refutes.

It is much more possible to think about the fact that a great many claimants who would have ignored the ability to claim previously, perhaps because of the difficulty in obtaining free legal services, now have the benefit of the internet which provides an abundant supply of information and numerous opportunities to deal directly with car accident lawyers. You don't need to walk to a high-street office and book a meeting to see a solicitor. Legal advice is readily available online, this also has resulted in a surge in compensation claims from people who might otherwise not have bothered. If you add to this the point that insurers are selling on policyholder data to accident management companies and personal injury lawyers, it can be fairly clear why there happens to be a rise in activity.

The insurance industry must think about how they themselves generate claimant based activity, which ultimately leads to excessive compensation costs. There may be a need to make tighter on fraud procedures to minimise the expenditure on claims which clearly are false or exaggerated.

Its high time the insurers helped themselves in an effort to finally give better value to the loyal motorist who's simply trying to receive a fair deal for a compulsory policy which he or she's got no choice but to buy.