Crawford Fraud Solutions signs deal with Legal & General in push to forge direct relationships with insurers
By Michael Faulkner
Crawford's counter fraud division is launching a campaign to win work from insurers directly rather than via referral by the company's loss adjusters.
Counter Fraud Solutions (CFS) has won a direct account with Legal & General (L&G) and is also in talks with a number of other insurers, claimed Bobby Gracey, head of CFS UK.
CFS was set up six months ago, with a team of 60 investigators throughout the UK. In the past it has obtained work by referral from Crawford's loss adjusters. However, Gracey said it is now looking to widen its market, by developing individual relationships with insurers.
"Crawford already has an adjusting relationship with L&G. CFS can obtain referrals from the adjusting work, but we also want to get referrals direct from the insurer." said Gracey.
The division has held a fraud workshop with L&G and will be setting up weekly fraud classes with the insurer's claims staff. The classes will teach claims handlers ways of identifying potentially fraudulent claims. Flagged claims can then be passed to CFS for investigation.
Gracey said that the CFS team will be helping L&G staff on all claims, not just those to be dealt with by Crawford loss adjusters.
CFS currently has 10 dedicated staff, in addition to around 50 loss adjusters and former police officers. However, Gracey said that this number will be expanded considerably.
"If we are able to tap into 10% of Crawford's work in progress, we would need 60 dedicated staff - and that's without any new contracts," said Gracey.
CFS is currently in talks with a number of major insurers including Royal & SunAlliance and Norwich Union.
Hosted by comedian and actor Tom Allen, 34 Gold, 23 Silver and 22 Bronze awards were handed out across an amazing 34 categories recognising brilliance and innovation right across the breadth of UK general insurance.
