According to sources, insurers are having to find new avenues for prosecution as a result
The City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Department (IFED) is struggling to come to terms with the level of referrals, according to industry sources.
A source told Insurance Times that IFED has slowed down the rate of which referrals are being accepted, while it tries to complete a backlog of existing cases.
The source said that while “the door has not been completely closed, they are cherry picking only the really important cases.”
Success story so far
Last month, IFED turned seven years old, and it announced that in those seven years, it had secured 433 convictions.
Along with this, IFED has played a huge part in bringing fraud to the foreground of the business and consumer conciousness, with successful campaigns alerting to the threat of crash for cash schemes and ghost broking.
But, it would appear that IFED is struggling with the resources at hand, as it is a small team, and with government cuts hanging overhead, there may not be much room for expansion.
Alternative routes
Insurers fund IFED through the ABI, but they may be forced to seek alternative routes through the enforcement part of fighting fraud. Alternative routes such as local policing or through private prosecutions.
BLM head of fraud operations and former head of investigations at the IFB, Jason Potter has revealed his desire to bring private prosecutions back.
Positives
This does, however, give encouragement as insurers are finding enough fraud to work IFED to its full capacity, but it could just be a case of insurers needing to lighten the load.
IFED has been approached for comment.
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