LV, the insurance company that includes Highway Insurance, today published their top ten fraudulent and exaggerated claims that have genuinely been reported to them which we list below. According to statistics, insurance companies receive one thousand five hundred claims a day in Britain of which they reckon that 60% are false/exaggerated/inflated. Other research conducted with accident victims revealed that nearly 30% of those who have claimed compensation for personal injuries following a car crash admitted they inflated their claim to get compensation and a further one in ten said they made up the injury entirely to get the money! Check out these porky pies!:

“The Facebook Fraudster”

The insurer received a car claim from a third party claiming both she (Mrs F) and her daughter were injured when the third party went into the back of her car. The lady later posted on Facebook that she’d been in a car accident that day and it had shaken her up. When a concerned friend enquired after her daughter, Mrs F replied that she was very relieved that her daughter hadn’t been in the car at the time. When challenged with this information, she immediately changed her story. This claim would have cost the insurers an additional £2,500 if the fraud had not been detected.

“The Silver Screen Scammer”

Miss S implied that she had to cancel her vacation as she sustained a whiplash injury and was unable to travel. She had travel insurance with the insurer and wanted to claim for the cost of the whole holiday. When asked how she had been injured, Miss S replied that she’d got whiplash after jumping back in surprise at seeing a tiger jump out of the water – while at the cinema watching Life of Pi in 3D! Claim amount asked: £1,000.

“The CCTV con merchant”

A cash for crash plotter, Mr C, slammed on his brakes in front of a van. but he didn’t realise that his antics were being caught on camera. The van belonged to a CCTV installer who had installed a video camera in his rear-view mirror. Beautiful. When the vehicles crashed, the camera had a perfect view of the inside of the car showing that there was one driver and no passengers. However, when Mr C lodged his claim for compensation, he also claimed that there were several other people in the car who were all conveniently injured. When challenged with the footage, he quickly disappeared. The total value of this claim was a shocking £20,000.

“The Fibbing Fighter”

Mr F – the Third Party – claimed that he was suffering “severe” whiplash after our insured went into the back of his vehicle. He claimed that his symptoms were extreme and that his doctor had said he would be out of action for several months and would have to give up the gym. Yet being a professional boxer meant that a quick search revealed records of him competing in a boxing match only six weeks after the alleged collision where he was well enough to win! Suffice to say he quickly withdrew his claim, and would potentially have cost the insurers at least £10,000.

“The Luxury Goods Liar”

Miss L claimed that when she was injured in her accident the impact had been so great that it had broken her Gucci sunglasses. Miss L sent in a pair of broken imitation shades and claimed she had “lost the receipt”. The loss adjusters confirmed that the shades were not genuine and therefore worth less than the cost of the postage to send them in. Miss L then claimed she had also lost a Pandora bracelet at the scene of the accident, which would have to be replaced. She submitted a hand written receipt for this bracelet which turned out to be just another poor quality fake. Claim requested: £1,000.

“The Baby Blagger”

A woman who had recently given birth claimed she had been in an accident and sustained whiplash while her friend was driving. However, medical records confirmed that she could not possibly have been in the car as she was in hospital giving birth at the time! This claim would could potentially have cost £3,000.

“The Two Pint Lager Trickster”

Mr T claimed that he had been driving past a truck that had lost some bricks, when the bricks had fallen onto their car. He wanted £3,500 compensation for the damage and personal injuries. When the insurers checked the police report, it transpired that the two scammers had not been driving at all but had been sat drinking in a pub garden with a precise view of the incident. Mr T had gone over and talked to the police about the incident he had witnessed and they recorded his name on the report!

“The Persistent Perjurer”

Mr P claimed that he had been hit by a car and requested compensation for his injuries and the damage to his vehicle. When the insurers engineers inspected the vehicle they found that the car had not been in a collision at all and that Mr P had obviously reversed the car into a wall. Also, what he did not realise is that the damage from the wall was a lot higher than a car bumper and the damage quickly gave him away. When challenged in court, Mr P insisted that he had collided with the other vehicle and signed a witness statement to this fact. He later admitted he had lied under oath and was found guilty of perjury, which resulted in a custodial sentence. The total value of this case including legal costs was a whopping £120,000.

“The Family Fraudster”

Way back in 2005, a car went into the back of Mrs A and left her with severe injuries that she claimed left her disabled – unable to work and in need of care for five to eight hours a day. Mrs A was in receipt of incapacity benefits and the entire claim was valued in excess of £650,000. Her husband and daughter also signed statements to the court confirming the claimant’s allegations. The insurers were later tipped off that Mrs A was not disabled as alleged, but that she was actually working. Mrs A was found guilty of contempt of court and given a custodial sentence.

and the winner is ….

“The Lazy Liars”

The B family took the accolade when they didn’t even bother to have an accident but instead used photographs of vehicle damage resulting from a previous collision – to allege that they had been in an accident that never ever took place. There were initially SEVEN claims for personal injury amounting to tens of thousands of pounds. When the Insurers checked the number plate against the insurer claims database, they found that one of the cars involved had been in an identical accident at a different junction a few months before. The insurers took the family to the courts in the first ‘contrived collision’ case of its kind, where the guilty parties received custodial sentences. The total value of this claim would have been £75,000.

These may be humorous to read but is outright criminal activity. Those thinking they can beat the system are very much mistaken as LV has published above – the best solution is to get a cheap minicab insurance, cheap empty property insurance or cheap liability insurance quotation in the first instance!