It’s a wonder insurers can still bring themselves to deal with vile scheming masses of the British population, at least a quarter of whom see nothing wrong with lying and cheating their way to ill-deserved insurance payouts.
Luxury information provider LexusNexus this week revealed that one in four UK consumers would tell a pack of lies on their motor insurance application form if it would save them a couple of quid.
One in five admitted they would be happy to pretend someone else caused scrapes and dents resulting from their own inability to perform even the most basic of manoeuvres without bumping into things.
Meanwhile, around a third had the brazen front to admit to LexusNexus researchers that the real driver of a vehicle they are insuring isn’t who they say it is.
On the bright side for insurers, they now know they can quite justifiably throw out at least a quarter (probably more like half) of all the motor insurance claims they receive. The trick is knowing which quarter (or half), of course.
Although, frankly, it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that a 50-year old solicitor from Prestwich with a flawless no-claims history isn’t really driving around in a 2003 yellow Seat Ibiza 1.4 Sport, for example.
If respondents were candid about their readiness to misrepresent the risks they bring to their insurers, they came over all coy when asked about their readiness to cash in on the UK’s ongoing whiplash windfall claims bonanza.
Just 8% said they thought it was “acceptable to exaggerate the severity of a personal injury, such as whiplash, to increase the amount of money paid-out,” a statistic that can hardly reflect their real thoughts or intentions if, as is strongly suspected, there’s really no such thing as whiplash!
Two-thirds of respondents said they saw no problem with having their every move recorded by some form of telematics device if it would save them money, suggesting that one or two would-be fronters, self-shunters and misrepresenters really haven’t thought things through!
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