’I’m looking forward to sharing my expertise to help ERS grow further within the UK market,’ says new appointee

Specialist motor insurer ERS has appointed Tom Cummings as its new head of counter fraud.

The role will see Cummings take responsibility for the firm’s counter fraud strategy and a range of tools used to combat policy and claims fraud.

He will report to Declan O’Mahony, head of claims at ERS.

Cummings said he was “excited” to the join the business.

He added: “Working for a Lloyd’s syndicate with such a unique blend of product lines is an amazing opportunity and I’m looking forward to sharing my expertise to help ERS grow further within the UK market.”

Experience

Cummings will bring over a decade of experience to his new role.

Prior to becoming part of ERS, Cummings held the position of process assurance lead for counter fraud at Hastings Direct.

He began his career by joining Admiral in August 2011 through their graduate scheme and progressed through the ranks, reaching the position of senior counter fraud executive in October 2019.

“I am delighted to welcome Tom to the ERS team,” said O’Mahony. 

“Tom’s expertise is highly respected in the counter fraud world and his experience in assurance and innovation will complement the work we are doing to embed intelligent automation into our customer journey.

AI Fraud model

Cummings explained that ERS’ “commitment to investing in machine learning and other anti-fraud tools to further automate their fraud detection capabilities was hugely exciting”.

One of the ways the firm bolstered its capabilities was by teaming up with Percayso Inform in January 2024 in a bid to assist brokers in writing better business.

It also launched manually traded commercial motor products into online platforms through a partnership with Dataiku, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform.

O’Mahony said: “We have a zero tolerance to fraud and have stringent defences in place to combat fraud, including an AI Fraud model and data enrichment provided by third-party partners Percayso and Dataiku.

“Tom’s leadership will enable us to face future fraud challenges, ensuring we continue to provide a robust defence for our brokers.”