Collaboration between insurers, police and regulators needed
Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) director Ben Fletcher has announced a three-point plan for tackling rogue Claims Management Companies (CMCs) involved in fraud.
Speaking at a Westminster Legal Policy Forum event, Fletcher called for continued collaboration between insurers, police and regulators.
The three measures outlined include a greater onus on front-end checks for CMCs, making disclosure of the referral source within the claim notification form a mandatory requirement and encouraging CMCs to share intelligence with the IFB.
Fletcher said: “Whilst many CMCs are genuine, we know from years of operational experience that some are set up by criminal gangs solely to mask organised insurance fraud.”
“The measures we are proposing will help us identify them, prevent them from posing a severe financial risk to our industry, investigate them and bring fraudsters to justice,” he added.
CMCs are often enablers of ‘cash for crash’ fraud investigated by the IFB.
Fifty-three percent of live police operations assisted by the Bureau focus on a suspected rogue CMCs.
In August 2012, CMC boss Masi Naqshbandi was found guilty of staging hundreds of road traffic accidents in order to make insurance claims, which would have been worth over £6.5m. Naqshbandi was sentenced to seven years in prison.
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