Just over one in ten household claims made to Legal & General are fraudulent, according to loss adjuster Crawford & Co.

Research carried out by Crawford revealed that 11.6% of claims referred to the loss adjuster from Legal & General contained "fraudulent features".

Crawford & Co head of counter-fraud solutions Bobby Gracey said: "Fraudulent features include falsified documents, inadequate proof of loss and irregular accounts of loss."

The statistics refer exclusively to household claims.

Claims referred to Crawford by Legal & General are handled by the loss adjuster's Birmingham-based Claims Alert centre.

"We've rolled out fraud awareness training to the extent that everyone at Crawford who touches a claim will be looking for evidence of fraud," Gracey said.

Crawford & Co is currently running a UK fraud investigation roadshow in an effort to raise awarenes among insurers and brokers of anti-fraud issues.

The roadshow deals with issues such as prevention and detection, fraud assessment, motives for fraud and data protection.

ABI research carried out earlier this year revealed that fraudulent claims on household and motor insurance cost insurers and their honest policyholders £20m per week.

The most common reason given by fraudsters to justify cheating was "most people do it" (23%).

Other reasons given were "it doesn't harm anyone personally" (22%), "insurers can afford it" (20%), and "you are unlikely to get caught" (16%).

The ABI is currently considering a number of anti-fraud initiatives. One plan is the establishment of a UK insurance crime bureau and another is to compile an industry-wide anti-fraud database.

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