'Many would not report false claim'
Updated on 26 August 2008
Less than a quarter of people quizzed on their attitudes to insurance fraud would report someone for making a false claim, according to new figures.
Just 23% would report the fraud and one in seven, or 14%, believe that it is acceptable to exaggerate a claim.
More than half, 56%, of the 2,700 people questioned for a survey by researchers at ITV said they could understand why someone might make up a claim in order to clear their debts. And 22% said they would have sympathy for someone who did.
The majority of those surveyed, 89%, said that insurance companies are out to make as much money as they can from people.
But even though 13% of people said that they had thought of exaggerating a claim, only 3% admitted to actually doing it.
The survey was conducted for the ITV1 series Fiddles, Cheats & Scams which looks at rising levels of insurance fraud.
Richard Davies, Fraud Risk Manager, Axa, tells the programme that the economic slowdown is contributing to the rise. "Businesses are finding it tough at the moment with increased interest rates and an inability to actually service their loans. Arson is one of the ways in which they will try and get out of the problem simply by burning the business down - and hoping that the insurance company is going to pick up the bill."
Lord Charles Brocket, who was jailed in 1996 for insurance fraud, told the programme: "I do think there's a sort of mentality that insurance companies are fair game. I guess they look at the profits of the companies, like the profits of the banks, and think, God, it's in billions or whatever. So if I have a little bit, it's not going to make any difference to them. It's not like mugging an old lady or holding up a bank which is obviously quite different. So yes, there is a different attitude towards insurance companies."
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