Claims team cracks down on fraudsters

Ecclesiastical Insurance’s claims team investigated over 280 cases of suspected fraudulent activity during 2025, a 20% increase on 2024.

Figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) showed insurers found dishonest claims valued at £1.16 billion in 2024, highlighting the importance of being fraud aware and the potential cost of getting it wrong. It is thought that the same value detected also goes undetected, valued at over £1 billion, and fraudsters are becoming increasingly more sophisticated.

Casualty Claims team detected over £2million in fraudulent claims made against customers – a 30% increase from 2024. Of these, approximately 50% were slips and trips, many including false injury narratives which were investigated and disproved.

The teams’ fraud detection rates also increased 5.5% compared to 2024, rising from 8.3% to 13.8% –a testament to the specialist insurer’s continued investment in the training and development of its staff.

Examples of fraudulent claims successfully defended include:

A cave of deception: A visitor brought a personal injury claim against an Ecclesiastical customer, alleging they had walked into a stalactite with enough force to cause a concussion and a bleeding scalp wound. Despite this, they reportedly exited via a ten-minute route unnoticed and drove an hour to the hospital. Upon referral to the customer, Ecclesiastical challenged the circumstances here, and the third-party solicitors promptly withdrew their claim.

From luxury to lies: A customer reported a burglary in which several items of designer clothing had supposedly been stolen. Their story soon unravelled when the retailers each confirmed the items had all been cancelled with a full refund shortly after purchase and long before the alleged break-in, in which case the items could not have been stolen.

Nature v narrative: The customer stated that, while abroad, a wily Coyote made off with their bag containing gadgets. When the claims team investigated the circumstances further, information requested to support the claim couldn’t be provided, which led to the claim being withdrawn.

Small car, big story: The story of the charity shop knockout that never was saw a claim made by someone advising they had been hit on the head by a fire engine toy, knocking them unconscious. Investigations uncovered that the toy figure weighed less than a tennis ball, and there had been no loss of consciousness at all.

Ecclesiastical’s claims teams also detected a trend for collusion between fraudulent claims and contractors.

Through document analysis, the insurer identified instances of manipulated estimates, where connected contractors submit strikingly similar quotes, and social media or online links that reveal undisclosed relationships between parties. Additional red flags include phantom contractors with no credible online presence or verifiable business history, as well as invoice fraud, where billing is inflated or entirely fabricated to exaggerate losses.

To help tackle this threat, Ecclesiastical continues to invest in its fraud investigation, strategic and technological capabilities to further identify potentially fraudulent claims. Last year, the company gained a seat on the General Insurance Fraud Committee alongside other members from across the insurance industry to help combat insurance fraud through collaboration.

Ecclesiastical’s claims team was recently awarded the Service Quality Marque (SQM) by the independent insurance research consultancy Gracechurch. The SQM is awarded annually to businesses that are proven to consistently deliver outstanding service quality for claims handling.