Insurance Times Awards 2024: Keoghs and LV= partnership uses ‘groundbreaking methods’ to counter motor claims fraud

1. Why did you put yourselves forward for the Excellence in Fraud Mitigation – Service Provider category?

This was insurance fraud on a large scale, with an organised criminal gang incepting misrepresented car insurance policies and using the vehicles to orchestrate deliberate road traffic collisions with the serious risk of causing emotional and physical harm to victims.

The result was a multifaceted operation by Keoghs and LV=, which ultimately became a nationwide collaboration between multiple organisations.

LV= and Keoghs not only proactively and uniquely tackled the fraudulent policy inception head-on, but also successfully delivered a sting operation to ensure perpetrators were caught and brought to justice, hugely reducing policy exposure and protecting LV= customers and other potential victims.

2. What do you think makes your entry stand out and why should you win the award?

Unfortunately, there are elements to the investigation that we can’t disclose publicly at this point.

Suffice to say that we used groundbreaking methods to predict future offences and ensure that the gang would be unaware of the sting operation to come, with our strategy effectively ending insurance cover on specific vehicles without tipping off the criminals.

This operation was also a triumph for intelligence-sharing across the insurance industry and beyond, with traffic police briefed and local press releases utilised to raise public awareness.

Thirdly, a process was developed that tipped off insurers and the IFB before payment if their policyholder was involved in a crash with a vehicle involved in the fraud, further disrupting the gang’s cash flow.

3. What would winning this award mean to you and your firm?

Keoghs continues to work at the forefront of counter fraud strategy, pushing the boundaries of what is possible to protect the industry from insurance fraud. This award would be further recognition of that approach and the broader successes that our counter fraud team achieve on a regular basis.

It would also highlight the importance of close collaboration with the wider industry when dealing with organised fraud on this scale.

Most of all, it would recognise the results achieved by both LV= and Keoghs via this particularly unique and innovative approach, both ensuring public safety and hitting the gang’s bottom line with the velocity and volume of misrepresented applications and slam-on incidents having dropped notably in 2024.