Allianz Commercial on track for fraud-busting record

Opportunistic fraud on the rise

Allianz Commercial has successfully prevented £36.8m worth of insurance fraud in the first six months of the year, with marked increases in the property and casualty sectors.

The fraud investigators at the business insurance provider are on track to beat their record from 2021, when they busted £65.8m worth of scams over the course of a full year.

The £36.8m of fraud they detected in the first half of 2022 represents a 23% increase over the same period last year.

The H1 2022 fraud savings are distributed as follows:

£17.3m in casualty (+26.6% over H1 2021)£10.3m in property (+40.6% over H1 2021)£9.2m in motor (+2.8% over H1 2021)

The 2021 whiplash reforms, with the Official Injury Claim portal, seem to have helped contain motor fraud. Crash-for-cash gangs continue to operate, targeting last-mile-delivery vans among other vehicles, but the rise is muted.

The increase is much more pronounced in commercial property and casualty.

Allianz Commercial has identified three trends, fuelled by the financial difficulties faced by both people and businesses:

individuals lying about personal injuries to bring a claim against a businesssmall businesses exaggerating what started as a genuine claimapplicants falsifying documents to obtain a cheaper quote

Recent cases include:

After a theft, a small shop claimed for a fire in order to receive a larger payout.A man who injured his Achilles tendon said he’d slipped on a wet floor at work, but a judge found it happened outside of work.A worker whose arm was lacerated in a forklift accident falsely claimed he hadn’t received training and refused to elucidate the circumstances of the accident. A court found the claim fundamentally dishonest.A small business falsified its prior claims history to obtain cheaper fleet insurance.

James Burge, head of counter fraud at Allianz Commercial, commented:

“With every economic downturn, insurers see a rise in fraud. At the moment, at Allianz Commercial, we’re particularly wary of opportunistic fraud, whether it is committed by or against businesses. Our teams are doing a great job of detecting dishonest claims and we’ll maintain our efforts to make sure that payouts go to genuine claimants. When times are hard, we need to help customers and claimants who actually need our support.”

Authored by Allianz