Fraud Bureau keeps its sights trained on motor

The Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) will continue to focus on motor fraud rather than tackling new types of scam, its chair has revealed.

Allianz called last year for the IFB to dedicate extra resources to employers’ and public liability claims fraud following a rise in such scams.

But IFB chair David Neave, outlining the key points of his organisation’s soon-to-be-unveiled new strategy to Insurance Times, said it would not be expanding into other product lines.

Neave, who is also director of insurance at Co-operative Financial Services, said: “If you do a risk assessment across the whole industry, while there might be risks around ‘slip and trip’ type claims, the key issue confronting chief executives is still motor.
“That’s our core area and that’s what we need to focus on rather than spilling out into new areas.”

He added that 2010-11 had seen growth in new forms of fraud, such as application scams.

Meanwhile, the police chief in charge of a new fraud-fighting unit wants insurers to complete a survey before he decides which areas of the industry to target.

City of London Police detective chief inspector David Wood was appointed head of the as-yet-unnamed unit last Friday.
The unit launches in 2012 and will have 35 police and support staff. It is being funded by insurers, amid fears that police budget cuts would impede the fight against fraud.

The unit’s board will be chaired by a member of the National Fraud Authority and will include a member of the ABI, a member of
the ABI board committee, a senior police manager and Wood.