The Eurostar link to Paris may have made the city a hot favourite for day-trippers but they seem to be financing the outing with even hotter claims.

Travel insurer Home & Overseas finds day-trippers to France are the second worst offenders for making fraudulent claims.

The worst are short-term policyholders going on UK holidays. Many of these fraudsters are called ghost riders because they never bother to make the journey in the first place.

"It is a relatively simple operation to catch these small time scams," said Glen Marr, fraud liaison manager at Zurich.

"When the claim comes in, we have procedures to tell whether they have travelled or not.

"If they have not travelled we prosecute."

But these fraudsters paint only part of the picture. Home & Overseas finds much of the industry's £50 million a year fraud bill is caused by exaggerated claims.

Cameras are the most exaggerated claim, followed by jewellery and designer clothes.

In one case, an assessor was called to question a claimant on the loss of a designer watch.

While visiting the bathroom, the assessor found a remarkably similar watch by the bath.

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