News has broken today that  a woman has been caught trying to claim £11,070 from not one but seven insurance companies after calling off a trip to Lanzarote following her daughter falling ill.

Joanne Hunt from Staffordshire woman did not declare in any of the claim forms that she had more than one insurance policy covering the holiday and deliberately faked her doctor’s signature on six of the forms. It is fraudulent to not disclose multiple policies covering the same event or series of events on any insurance policy from cheap minicab insurance to high value property insurance.

Insurers deliberately asked specific questions to extract the truth from customers, even if they are innocently erroneous. Where an issue is challenged and picked up by any good insurance broker or insurance company, this can be dealt with immediately and without accusation.

IFED (Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department) detectives travelled to Staffordshire to interview Hunt after which she pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud by false representation after being summonsed to City of London Magistrates’ Court

The case was alerted by assistance service provider Aria Assistance, after it identified a claim Hunt had submitted as suspected fraudulently and details supplied to IFED’s Detective Constable Julian Brown who was reported to have said: “Hunt used her daughter’s illness and a cancelled family holiday as a means to try and con thousands of pounds from insurers. This may have seemed like a foolproof plan at the time but now, with a criminal record against her name, she may think it was one of the worst decisions she has ever made.Hunt’s sentence highlights once again how IFED is working with industry to bring insurance fraudsters to justice across England and Wales.”

According to Insurance Post, Joanne Hunt, 28,  received a 14-week jail term suspended for two years at City of London Magistrates’ Court on 21 February. She will also have to complete 100 hours unpaid work and pay £85 court costs and vindicates the tireless work that goes on behind the scenes to protect innocent policyholders from paying disproportionate premiums.