Birmingham’s status as the UK’s biggest motor fraud hotspot has been confirmed in the sixth annual Motor Fraud Index compiled by specialist law firm Keoghs.
The city ranked number one in the firm’s top ten hotspots for all types of motor fraud for the fourth consecutive year, accounting for 7.76 per cent of all suspect motor insurance claimants across England and Wales throughout 2012. This was closely followed by East London (4.22%), Liverpool (4.03%) and Manchester (3.75%).
During 2012, over 24,000 claimants suspected of submitting fraudulent claims were referred to Keoghs by a host of the country’s top insurers.
Amongst the top 40 towns on the Index, those experiencing the highest annual increase in suspect claimants were Crewe, which saw a 260% rise; Medway in Kent (145%) and Leicester (58%).
Regionally, Wales and the South West have seen the biggest increase, with 49% more claimants on the firm’s database compared to 2011. Cardiff became a fraud blackspot following a 49% rise in suspect claimants, with a particular increase in fraud ring related activity and staged accidents.
The 2013 Index also shows a startling spread of fraud over the course of the past three years; a worryingly low number of 12 out of 104 post code areas in the UK are now considered to be relatively low risk, marking a significant increase in the spread of motor fraud since 2009.
Speaking of the findings, James Heath, partner and director of Counter-Fraud Strategy at Keoghs, said: “This year’s results continues a trend we have seen over the past few years; an ongoing and alarming spread of fraudulent motor claims away from the more traditional hotspots we have historically seen across England and Wales. This has resulted in only relatively small areas of the UK being left unscathed by the problem of fraudulent insurance claims.”
GrumpyOldMen - 20/02/2013 11:11
I thought the insurance industry was supposed to be doing something about this? I have yet to see any evidence of either commitment or success. The insurers are the problem. They often just lose their bottle and won't fight a claim because "it's not commercially acceptable". Judges don't help much either as consistency is lacking and verdicts can often be surprising, so again insurers are reluctant to contest. We are going to keep hearing insurers quoting "commercial reasons" and there will be many more cases like one I had recently - absolute zero repair costs on our car and insurers paid out £9K in whipcash claims without consulting with us in any part of the process, even though we flagged from the start we thought the claim was fraudulent. This has to stop. It has to stop now. Only the insurers can make it happen. Unlikely then.