The Association of British Insurers has revealed that fraudsters are submitting a scam claim every minute of the day, underlining what it calls “the true extent of insurance fraud in the UK” which now amounts to £1.3bn a year.

Despite the huge scale of the problem, the number of dishonest insurance claims - 113,000 in 2017 - was down 8% on 2016 due to increased collaboration between insurers and other agencies and more effort to deter fraud.

The trade body says that there were over 500,000 insurance frauds detected in 2017 – from lying when applying for cover to making a dishonest claim.

On average, one insurance fraud is detected every minute.

For the first time, the ABI’s annual detected fraud figures include data on application fraud - where details such as age, address, or claims history are deliberately mis-stated.

The figures for 2017 show:

•A total of 562,000 insurance frauds were detected by insurers. Of these there were 113,000 fraudulent claims, and 449,000 dishonest insurance applications.

•The number of organised frauds, such as staged motor accidents, fell 22% on 2016, with frauds worth £158 million detected. This reflects the work of the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), who are investigating a rising number of suspected frauds, and the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED). Since its formation in 2006, the IFED has secured over 400 court convictions for insurance fraud. 

•The value of detected fraudulent motor insurance claims, at £775m, rose by 4% on 2016. The number of these frauds, at 67,000, showed a small rise.

•Fraudulent property insurance claims fell. The number detected dropped by 11% on 2016 to 22,000, with a value of £100 million.  

•Insurers detected 449,000 cases of confirmed or suspected application fraud, where people lied or withheld information to try and get cheaper cover. Motor insurance made up the bulk.

Some of the insurance scams uncovered included:

• A bodybuilder, who claimed £150,000 for a back injury, was exposed when he was filmed doing a press-up challenge. He was ordered to pay £35,000 in legal costs.

• The ring leader of a gang who staged a bus crash to try to get £500,000 in insurance pay-outs for fake injuries was jailed and banned from driving for two years. Using a rental car, he staged the crash, following which eight of his fellow fraudsters on the bus claimed for fake injuries to necks and hips.

• A student was convicted after attempting to claim £14,000 through six invented claims following a trip to Venice, including the alleged loss of an iPod, laptop and designer watch.

• A four and half year police investigation into a huge crash for cash staged accident operation in South Wales, which netted the ringleaders £2m, led to the convictions of 150 people.

James Dalton, ABI’s director, general insurance policy, said: “It is good that organised fraud fell, especially as scams like staged accidents can often put lives at risk and involve huge amounts of money. But, with the Insurance Fraud Bureau currently investigating a rising number of suspected insurance frauds, there will be no let-up in the crackdown on the insurance cheats.

“The rise in opportunistic motor fraud highlights that the stricter regulation of claims management companies, some of whom encourage dishonest claims, cannot come in soon enough.”