NEARLY 3,500 cases of motorists lying on their applications for insurance or deliberately leaving out relevant information are being uncovered by insurers each week, new figures reveal.
Some 180,675 attempts to make fraudulent applications for motor insurance - as people tried to get cheaper cover than they were entitled to - were detected last year, equating to about 3,475 incidents a week, according to data released by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
These claims were exposed as lies by the insurer either at the point when the person applied for a policy, or after they had obtained cover, and gone on to make a claim.
Common cases involved people deliberately trying to pull the wool over insurers' eyes by pretending their "no claims bonus" was longer than it really was or trying to cover up past driving convictions.
Some cases involved drivers giving a false name or lying about where they live, pretending their car was being kept in a more crime-free area.
Other fraudulent applications involved "fronting", where for example a parent pretends to be the main driver of a car when in reality it is their child, who is more expensive to insure.
The ABI, which has totted up the figures for the first time in order to highlight the full extent of fraudulent applications for cover, estimates that such frauds add approximately £50 to every household's annual insurance bill.
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