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First put to the test in January 2018, Horwich Farrelly’s pioneering fraud investigation tool has now been officially launched.
Called Car Wash, the system considers over 30 potential indicators of motor insurance fraud in a streamlined process using “innovative technology and novel algorithms.” The fully automated solution is said to be the first of its kind.
Since its first pilot a year ago, Car Wash has processed more than 50,000 claims with over 4,500 fraud matches detected so far. Aside from Horwich Farrelly’s own historical fraud data, the tool examines information such as MOT history, mileage data, road tax records, as well as change of keeper dates and car adverts.
“Since 2017 we had been investigating how we could combine the wide variety of data sources that help us to identify fraudulent claims in a much more streamlined way so as to speed up the process and reduce client cost,” noted Rick Preston, head of the intelligence team at Horwich Farrelly.
“We saw a growing number of positive matches on credit hire claims that were the result of intelligence searches against commonly used vehicle databases. We therefore used this insight, and some really eye-catching results from a number of pilots, to create a product that would interrogate every claim, automatically.”
Preston, who is of the view that the technology could be an industry game-changer, said it takes Car Wash seconds to complete more than 30 different checks.
“We know that huge claims savings can be made when insurers take every piece of crucial evidence into account,” he added. “Even simple things such as if a claimant’s car passed an MOT during hire, but that they still continued to hire for another month, can be a strong indicator of fraud.
“Car Wash has, even in cases where the insurer believes nothing else will be found, achieved significant cost savings and, as more claims are withdrawn, the savings will only increase.”
Moving forward, the firm plans to incorporate additional data sets to further enhance its fraud probe system.
