Insurance fraud cases worth £500,000 have been uncovered by telematics underwriting agency Insurethebox using data collected from black boxes inside cars.

The firm said it had used the data to disprove 31 claims, involving seven accidents over five months, and taken the drivers to court.

In one example, the claimant said there had been an accident at a road junction in Gravesend, Kent involving two strangers, the Financial times reports.

But the black box showed one of the cars involved had been parked for 20 minutes earlier in the day outside the address of a company owned by the other person.

It also showed the initial impact had taken place on a country lane before the car was driven to the site of the alleged accident.

Insurethebox claims director Adrian Steele said: “There were many other causes for concern in these particular cases and an in-depth investigation proved extremely fruitful in terms of evidence against the claimants.

“It was clear that they were closely connected in their personal lives, and the high number of claims involving more than one of the group of policyholders was a strong indicator of fraud.”

Marketing actuary Charlotte Halkett added: “We have seen what fraud looks like and we have seen real claims and they do not look the same. It is like a ball of wool, you pull one thing and it all starts unravelling.”