Credit crunch a ‘breeding ground for fraud’

AIRMIC members have received a warning that the recession could lead to higher levels of claims against liability policies.

The warning came at a briefing given jointly by Crawford & Company and RSA.

Suzanne Kearney, director of SLS, a Crawford company, described the credit crunch as ‘potentially a breeding ground for fraud.’

During the economic slowdown of the 1980s motor fraud increased ‘exponentially’, and the same trends were already emerging this time around, she said. ‘Motor fraud is at risk of increase. Claims are on the increase in even the most well ordered companies.’

Redundancy is one of the factors that can trigger increased EL claims, she said, as employees express dissatisfaction with the results of the economic slowdown, and impact on jobs.

Tell-tale signs of spurious injury can include a sudden unexplained rise in claims at one location, refusal to entertain non-financial compensation such as rehabilitation and repeat claimants.

The briefing for AIRMIC members heard that Employer’s and Public Liability rates were under pressure from a variety of sources, including increased litigiousness and changes in UK and European law, as well as the rise in fraud.

AIRMIC chief executive John Hurrell said: ‘This very well attended briefing by RSA and Crawford underlined the reasons why Liability has risen right up our members’ agenda.’