Cobra UK is urging the insurance industry to tackle the cash for crash fraud epidemic head on with more widespread use of telematics to reduce premiums for all.
Last month the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) released a report that said the issue is costing UK motorists nearly £400 million per year.
While Cobra UK fully supports the IFB working with police to bring the culprits to justice, it believes that fitting ‘black box’ technology to more vehicles will enable insurance companies to start stamping out fraudulent claims.
The immediate crash data that can be made available by telematics devices can allow insurance companies to build up a clear picture of the circumstances of an accident, giving admissible evidence on exactly what occurred.
This can reduce the cost and time of bringing the perpetrators of fraudulent claims to justice and also act as a deterrent and furthermore as a safeguard for the millions of innocent motorists who are at risk of being victims of crash for cash fraudsters.
Cobra’s in-car black box telematics technology enables an insurer to detect everything from a vehicle’s movement, speed, cornering and braking parameters, to rollover and impact events, providing trip statistics, driving behaviour analysis and incident reconstruction.
Internal GPS and GSM antennae enable location, mapping and reporting, plus theft tracking when required. Downloading and analysing the data can help to identify possible fraudulent claims quickly.
Andrew Smith, managing director at Cobra UK, said: "The use of telematics by insurance companies is growing rapidly as this innovative technology delivers proven, scalable and highly efficient ways for insurers to reduce risk, based on actual driver behaviour.
“This technology has so far successfully been used by insurers to offer young driver policies at more reasonable rates for those who are willing to have their driving behaviour monitored.
“Insurers can deploy the same technology to reduce the risk of fraudulent crash for cash claims across a wider section of drivers.
“This could reduce premiums across the board, discourage fraudulent claims and ultimately protect responsible drivers from being targeted by those who deliberately cause accidents."
Mark Sansby - 14/02/2013 11:16
Following a recent insurance webinar, I was surprised to find out that evidence from telematics is not admissible in court - not unless it is a Home Office approved system (which are only supplied to emergency services and the like). As such, telematics has limitations in assisting in cash for crash & fraudulent claims. I would be interested in finding out how telematics holds the 'key to cutting cash for crash fraud' when it doesn't show what happens in an accident and any information it provides cannot be used in a court of Law. Surely in vehicle video recording systems are far more effective in this. I know evidence from such systems has been used to convict cash for crash gangs.