Supporting law enforcement

Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime. The costs associated with fraudulent claims is borne by honest policyholders and in some cases, fraudsters put innocent lives on the line in order to profit from their fraud.

We play an important role assisting police investigations into organised insurance fraud and helping to bring fraudsters to justice.

By facilitating operational working and intelligence groups to identify fraud threats, orchestrating industry-wide investigations and enabling coordinated member and enforcement action, we help law enforcement in cases where centralised industry data is lacking. By acting as a trusted partner, our coordinating role in collating intelligence can be vital to the outcome of a case.

Here are some of the ways we work alongside police forces:

• We use our unique access to a wide variety of insurance records to help law enforcement agencies understand the full extent of fraudsters' activities
• We work with police forces to research evidence obtained by the police through wider investigations
• We coordinate the production of customers' witness statements and secure their evidence so that police can use it in their prosecution of insurance fraudsters.

Since our formation in 2006 we've successfully worked alongside police forces from across the UK, supporting arrests and helping secure jail time for convicted fraudsters.

Case Study 1:

A crooked claims management company provided the seemingly legitimate front to a £6.5 million attempted ‘Crash for Cash’ scam across Greater London, which was exposed by the IFB. The ringleaders used their registered accident management company to coordinate the scam, orchestrating fake accidents across London, which resulted in more than 250 fraudulent insurance claims being submitted in a single year!

Having identified the ringleaders, the IFB supported the Metropolitan Police’s CO15 Unit, leading to the arrest and prosecution of both individuals, and unprecedented prison sentences totalling more than 12 years combined for their parts in organising hundreds of staged and contrived accidents.

Case Study 2:

A finance officer at a veterinary practice made over £37,000 in fraudulent claims by altering invoices obtained from their employer. Acting as the conduit between City of London Police's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) and our affected member insurers, we shared the necessary evidence for enforcement action.

Working closely with IFED on this pet insurance fraud scheme ensured that justice was served. The fraudster received a 20-month suspended sentence and was ordered to repay nearly £15,000.