Looking back ... Eight years ago

Serial dishonesty in insurance claims is nothing new.

Once again fraud against insurance companies is in the news. Perhaps it is the morality of the 1990s that insurance companies are fair game and that the public is just getting something back in return for premiums paid out in fraudulent claims.

A recent survey has suggested that people will get even more dishonest in years to come and so the question must be whether the insurance industry is doing enough to curb fraud and dishonesty. I believe that a much more rigorous assessment of claims is called for, accompanied by publicity that even the smallest claim is in the future liable to analysis.

At the end of the day however, only cooperation with the police is likely to reduce major fraud and that is why the creation of the Crime and Fraud Prevention Bureau is so important.

Together with the police, insurers must make a major effort to wage war against cheats and defrauders and I would like to be reassured that all the industry's mechanisms to detect and prevent fraudulent claims claim s are being fully utilised.

This is a battle the industry must win and the large majority of honest people will be supportive.