Direct Line Group hosted a workshop in July, with Swinton set to host the next in October

The City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) has delivered its first in a series of regional engagement workshops, with more being lined up for the coming months.

The workshops are aimed to give insurers an added opportunity to engage with officers on a variety of insurance fraud topics, such as statement writing for referrals/evidence, internal fraud and the financial aspects of insurance fraud investigations.

The first workshop saw Direct Line Group (DLG) hosting in Leeds, saw a fraud intelligence handler speaking about his six months of experience in the team.

Other insurers in attendance included Aviva, RSA, LV= and Zurich.

Swinton, who also attended the Leeds workshop, is hosting the next one on 30 October in Manchester, but the full list of attendees has not been confirmed.

IFED is asking for insurers and brokers in the area to get in contact to sign up and register their interest in attending.

Prevent adviser for IFED, and workshop organiser, Colin Jemide said: “Continued engagement with the insurance industry is a priority for IFED, and these workshops provide a good opportunity for us to engage with a wide spectrum of insurance staff across the country on several insurance-related topics.

“We want to meet face to face with staff from the insurance industry so we can discuss pertinent issues and exchange ideas to improve our collaborative efforts in the fight against insurance fraudsters.

“A big thanks to DLG who hosted us our first engagement workshop and Swinton Insurance who have agreed to host the next. Any other insurers who wish to register their interest in hosting a regional workshop, please do get in touch.”

Mike Brown, head of counter-fraud intelligence at DLG said: “We were delighted to support and host the first IFED SPOC day. Attendance and feedback was extremely positive and highlights the importance of collaborative industry engagement in successfully tackling insurance related fraud.

“Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime, increased industry collaboration can only be a positive step in mitigating risk and ensuring that we protect our innocent customers.”