Comment - Operation Tinky Winky

29/07/2010

Last week, the issue of fraud was again writ large in the insurance trade press with the latest figures from the Association of British Insurers revealing 122 000 fraudulent insurance claims were uncovered in 2009, up 14% on 2008. The value of these claims, at £840m, rose by 14% on the previous year.

Among the claims highlighted were a young woman who claimed to have tripped over a loose paving stone, when her injuries were actually sustained from jumping down a flight of stairs while running away from security guards on suspicion of shoplifting; and another person who alleged that their head injuries were sustained falling over, when in fact they were hit with a baseball bat during a fight.

The investigation, codenamed ‘Operation Nacho’, was apparently part of ‘Operation Sledgehammer’, and involved a specialist team of detectives within Durham Constabulary that investigated the information provided by the IFB regarding the alleged scams in operation in the local area.

Both these stories â along with the announcement of the 2010 Fraud Awards shortlist â got me thinking about the insurance industry’s efforts in combating fraud. While it appears that the market is doing a fine job in improving its detection rates perhaps it is missing a trick?

Talking of ‘Nacho’, perhaps the police should be less macho in the names for their operations to tackle fraudsters. Of course, being brought to justice by an insurance-backed fraud investigation should be bad enough.

But can you imagine the shame of these criminals if, instead of being caught by operation Sledgehammer and Contact â to name but two, all operations were named after children’s TV characters.

Imagine the look of disgust and shame on a fraudster’s face if they were caught and convicted by operation ‘Tinky Winky’, ‘Upsy Daisy’ or ‘Milly and Lilly’? I would suspect it would take them down a peg or two further than previously. Perhaps they should then be forced to dress up as the character whose alias was used in the investigation… now I am getting ahead of myself.

Original Article: Post