Insurance insider investigation sees three arrested
An Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) investigation into the suspected fraudulent sale of an insurer’s confidential customer information has seen three people arrested across Bournemouth and Poole.
The City of London Police unit took action after LV= referred suspicions that, between January and December 2014, an employee had unlawfully passed information they held on 50 third party road traffic collision victims to a claims management company in exchange for payments totalling close to £17,000.
The victims’ reported being contacted by a person they believed worked for LV= and subsequently their claims for personal injuries, vehicle repairs and courtesy cars being dealt with by a claims management company.
They said they had received payouts from the claims management company for their claims. But IFED’s investigation has uncovered the payouts were up to 40 per cent lower than the amount LV= had paid out for each claim.
Yesterday, a 22-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man, both claims management company employees, were arrested at a business premises in the Westbourne area on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery and money laundering.
They have since been bailed (date awaits).
Detectives searched the premises and seized a large volume of insurance-related documentation.
On Wednesday, a 24-year-old former LV= employee was arrested at his home in the Poole area on suspicion of fraud by abuse of position. He was later released on police bail until September.
City of London Police Detective Constable Kate Sibley, who is leading the investigation, said, ‘Illegitimately selling or buying an insurer’s confidential customer information is a criminal offence.
‘This operation should send a strong message to anyone thinking of committing this type of fraud – insurers are working with the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department to root you out and you will feel the full force of the law.’
Martin Milliner, claims director at LV=, commented, ‘We work closely with the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department and as soon as we suspected one of our employees was liaising inappropriately with a claims management company we referred the matter to IFED. Protecting our customers’ data is of paramount importance and we have systems in place to monitor this.’
