Ten findings of fundamental dishonesty (FD) in five days – that’s what insurance law firm Horwich Farrelly has successfully secured, hitting a record in its anti-fraud push in partnership with top insurer Aviva.
The convictions in the cases referred by the insurer translated to savings worth over £96,000 in damages and costs, with the legal fees to be recovered from the dishonest claimants.
“First and foremost, Aviva is here to pay claims, which we do 96% of the time,” asserted Aviva casualty claims director Richard Hiscocks. “However, we also have a duty to our customers to ensure that we are not paying for fraudulent claims, which adds to the cost of insurance. Thanks to Aviva’s leading fraud detection capabilities, we saved our honest customers more than £80 million last year.
“Working in partnership with law enforcement agencies and law firms like Horwich Farrelly, we successfully prosecuted 58 instances of fraud last year, securing custodial sentences of over 68 years, and challenged hundreds of cases of which resulted in findings of fundamental dishonesty.”
Horwich Farrelly has been working with Aviva for one and a half decades.
“Aviva has a clear strategy of listening to its customers and defending them where there are fraud concerns, even when it is uneconomic to do so,” noted Jared Mallinson, fraud and Aviva client account partner at Horwich Farrelly.
“Challenging these cases and passing them to us once litigated works well with our own strategy and that is why we are able to have record-breaking fraud results such as this and have obtained more FD findings than any other firm.”
Mallinson added: “We will continue to work closely with clients and the industry to apply a zero-tolerance approach in combatting fraud and hope the outcome of these cases will make people think twice before falsifying a claim.”
