Car Insurance? How Important Is It?

With the rise in the number of cars on the city’s roads, as well as the number of commuters who wish the convenience of their own vehicles, car insurance is a great way to manage finances regarding your car, as well as preparation in the event of damage, theft or resale of your vehicle.

However, before you take out insurance, it is important to know what you’re taking out. It is also important to be aware of fraudulent insurers as well in making your insurance decisions; just the same as it is important to be honest when taking out your policy and making your claims.

Many people lie to car insurers to save on premium costs. The most common lies are about age, address and where the car is parked overnight. Many people also do not declare bans for speeding or drunk driving.

Lying about personal or driving record details can lead to an insurance policy being invalidated, said uSwitch.com, which sponsored the survey.

The ABI estimates that the database could save insurers £20,000 a day in detecting and deterring fraudulent insurance claims.

It added that insurers could be paying out as much as £500m a year to fraudulent claimants.

"Dishonest motor insurance claims are paid for by honest customers, this is why insurers are determined to stamp them out," ABI spokesman Justin Jacobs said.

"Not only will it help detect more motor fraud but it will act as a strong deterrent, making anyone thinking of cheating on their insurance think twice."

Motor claims inspect from Kent has been found to have undertaken fraudulent activities on tens of thousands of accident reviews in a recent civil case. As a result of the case, which took three years worth of investigations by a team at Hill Dickinson, solicitor are warning insurers against using information provided by Adrian Mantle of Beckenham. Mr Mantle, 53, who is said to have inspected 50 000 accident damaged vehicles over a 3 year span, used several aliases to sign off his reports.

‘Since this judgment he has prepared reports using other aliases,” said Peter Oakes, partner and head of fraud at Hill Dickinson. “It has not stopped his actions but we do track him and warn our clients when it happens.”

The case’s outcome may curb the amount of fraudulent cases as fraud rings will have to find a new insider if they want to sign off fake motor claims, added Mr Oakes.

Assistant solicitor Martin Stockdale said Mr Mantle ha not been charged criminally because the onus is on the police to investigate if an insurance firm puts forth a criminal complaint. “There are clearly issues I think may be of interest to the police,” he said.

Mr Mantle has gone by the names Stuart King, Peter Smith, Derek Dunk and Martin Booth – the latter two being engineers who have been used by Mr Mantle. The solicitors provided information to the court that showed Mr Mantle had been doing an average of seven inspections a day, often in different areas of the country.

As for both consumers and insurers alike, ailing to disclose key information because they are bewildered by insurance industry jargon, if in doubt, let common sense prevail and make sure that honesty is the best policy.