A £3.5m claim was not entered onto Independent Insurance's system, a broker has claimed, as he hit out at the industry for letting down its customers.

Midlands Risk Management boss Gary Carroll said his commercial client's warehouse was severely damaged and his stock destroyed by fire two months ago.

He put a £3.5m claim into Independent immediately after the fire and was visited by loss adjusters from Property & Casualty Services.

Carroll received an email from Independent claims managers confirming the loss was covered under the policy, but did not receive any payment before the company went into liquidation.

"We'd had meetings with the loss adjusters and they were well aware of it," he said.

"I'd spoken to the most senior people in the claims department – we'd got confirmation from them that it would be covered under the policy."

He said his client, who has 80 staff, was now in severe financial difficulties after being forced to write off the stock losses and repair the warehouse as best as he could afford with his own finances.

Carroll said that in the aftermath of the insurer's collapse, he had been informed that the claim had never been entered on Independent's system.

"I received a phone call from a departing Independent staff member and the person said the claim hadn't been registered on the insurer's computer," he said.

"He's a senior staff member, I've known him for 15 years and he wouldn't lie."

Carroll said his client had now lost all faith in the insurance industry.

"They're long-standing customers of Independent, they've been with them for ten years and he feels extremely let down by the system.

"He can't understand why the groups that govern insurance let this happen. He genuinely can't believe that our industry would permit this to happen and now, why it hasn't stepped in to sort this out."

Carroll is joining the class action against the groups involved in Independent's collapse on his client's behalf.

Independent's liquidators Price-waterhousecoopers were unavailable for comment on the issue.

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