Allianz Commercial prevents £36.8m worth of fraud in H1 2022

Allianz Commercial has prevented £36.8m worth of insurance fraud in the first six months of 2022 – a 23% increase from the same period last year.

To compare, for the full year of 2021, the insurer’s fraud investigators deterred £65.8m worth of scams.

Its most recent analysis the insurers marked a rise in property and casualty fraud, which was more pronounced in commercial lines compared to personal lines.

Crash-for-cash gangs continue to operate, targeting last-mile delivery vans among other vehicles, but the rise is muted.

The insurer further noted that the low percentage increase in motor fraud seems to have been helped by the 2021 whiplash reforms and the implementation of the Official Injury Claim (OIC) portal (31 May 2021).

The insurer’s head of counter fraud James Burge said: “With every economic downturn, insurers see a rise in fraud.

“At the moment – at Allianz Commercial – we’re particularly wary of opportunistic fraud, whether it is committed by or against businesses.

“Our teams are doing a great job of detecting dishonest claims and we’ll maintain our efforts to make sure that payouts go to genuine claimants.

“When times are hard, we need to help customers and claimants who actually need our support.”