Alex Trelinski
BOGUS insurance claims rose by 21% in 2020 compared to 2019, according to Linea Directa’s ‘Insurance Fraud Barometer’ published on Monday.
The insurer says there were nearly 75,000 instances of fraud in the 2019-20 and that seven out of every hundred reports are fake.
The 2020 payout on bogus reports was €70 million with the firm saying that is a driving force behind premium price rises.
The average false claim comes in at €1,130 per case, which is actually the lowest since 2013.
Car insurance accounts for two-thirds of made-up claims.
That’s because personal physical injury comes into play, and compensation is much higher than for simple vehicle damage.
The study suggests the main car insurance cheat is a man aged between 18 and 24 years.
It also showed that seven million car drivers would commit fraud if they knew they could get away with it.
Cantabria, Cuenca and Malaga are the provinces where the most insurance lies have been detected , while Soria Teruel and Palencia are the best-behaved in Spain.
Linea Directa says criminal mafias use car accident scams as their biggest sector of insurance fraud.
200 gangs making money out of false claims have been identified in the last two years.
The Murcia region has six times the national average of such organisations, followed by Andalucia and the Basque Country.
Each gang claim comes out at an average of €8,000 per party.
READ MORE:
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- Police on Spain’s Costa Blanca say rising bogus crime reports are conning banks and insurance companies out of money
