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Family cases tripped up by claims histories

One of the growing trends we are seeing in liability fraud cases are linked public liability claims (e.g. groups of people allegedly falling in the same place at different times and claiming for injuries sustained).

One such recent case involved a father and daughter who both claimed to have tripped on the same defective driveway adjacent to their social housing property. The two incidents were just months apart.

The insured admitted they were aware of the defect, but had failed to undertake any repairs for over 12 months – so we had to admit breach of duty. The father’s medical records also broadly supported his claim so, at face value, the matter appeared likely to be settled.

However, intelligence analysis uncovered that there was a significant previous claims history emanating from the claimants’ address. This, coupled with the fact that the two claimants appeared to be the only people to trip on the defect, aroused our suspicions.

We submitted our findings to the claimants for their comments. No responses were received and eventually the claimant’s solicitors confirmed that they were no longer instructed to proceed. The fraud saving against reserves on the two cases amounted to £38,000.

The case was handled by Chris Henson from Keoghs’ Liability Fraud team, working together with the counter-fraud team at our insurer client.

Chris Henson
Associate
T: 01204 677359
E: chenson@keoghs.co.uk