Insurance fraud ‘may be biggest to hit industry in 20 years’

A MASSIVE public liability insurance fraud in the North, which has left victims with a potential uninsured risk of €1.4 billion, is being investigated by police.

More than 1,400 small businesses, organisations and individuals may have been stung by the scam, said the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The Serious Fraud Office, supported by the PSNI Fraud Unit, has begun a criminal investigation.

Police inquiries indicate at this stage that as much as €5 million in premiums could have been lost.

Detective Chief Inspector Larry Cheshire of the PSNI said that equated to a potential uninsured risk of almost €1.4 billion.

Police carried out a series of raids in the North and South Yorkshire and Leicestershire in England.

In a separate investigation, PSNI Fraud Unit members were assisting colleagues from the Central Scotland Fraud Unit to investigate a similar Scottish-based fraud involving some 400 victims in the North with a premium loss estimated at around €723,000 and a consequent uninsured risk of some €216 million.

Mr Cheshire said there had been no arrests to date but that the fraud was widespread and business people in the region needed to be made aware of it.

“This has a huge potential to impact heavily on the economy of Northern Ireland, which is why we are taking it so seriously.”

He said industry insiders warned it had “the potential to be the biggest insurance fraud to hit the industry in 20 years”.

He stressed insurance companies themselves were uninvolved but appeared to have been “duped” by rogue brokers.

“My advice is that anyone who has any doubts over the validity of their insurance cover should check immediately with their broker to make sure that it is valid.

“Anyone who believes that they have been the victim of this fraud should contact the PSNI Fraud Unit,” he said.