Can you help combat bogus insurance claims?
Insurance fraud against Bridgend County Borough Council is not a victimless crime. The council has to pay an 'excess' on all claims and this automatically becomes part of the council's running costs, which are passed on to the citizens of the county borough through the council tax system. Fraudulent claims add to these costs unnecessarily. In essence, claims cheats are making honest council tax payers suffer financially. With this in mind, the council takes the submission of fraudulent claims very seriously and seeks to identify and root out all such claims. Fraud is a serious offence and action will be taken against those willing to commit such crimes against their own communities. In appropriate cases the police will be involved, which could result in fines and imprisonment. |
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Types of fraud
People commit many kinds of fraud, often thinking that they are doing no wrong because it "isn't hurting anyone". This is not the case. People defrauding the system are criminals and they shouldn't get away with it. Types or fraud are:
- Injury fraud: e.g. describing a false set of circumstances, time or place of an accident, leading to an untrue personal injury claim
- Bogus claims: e.g. inventing symptoms or that an incident never occurred
- Exaggerated claims: overstating the severity of a claim
- Multiple claims: claiming for the same injury in a number of local authority regions
Bridgend County Borough Council subscribes to "Fraudline" which is run by Cunningham Lindsey, a leading claims management and loss adjusting firm. This is a free 24-hour telephone hotline that operates 365 days a year. This allows members of the public and public sector staff to anonymously report suspected fraudulent insurance claims.
If you know of or suspect that somebody is making a fraudulent insurance claim against the Council, please ring FraudLine on freephone 0800 328 9270, it could ultimately help to minimise your council tax bill.
- Last Updated: 11/11/2009
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