A wife and husband from the United Kingdom have been arrested on suspicion of making a false injury claim. The personal injury compensation claim was for a whiplash injury which was supposedly sustained in a car crash which happened in April 2011. While the car accident itself was a real event, the injury came under question with insurance companies. An organisation which monitors such matters, the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department questioned the couple who are now 26 and 27 years of age. The IFED is based in the City of London Police, working closely with the detectives there.
The couple’s insurance company were unsure about the details of their personal injury compensation claim and contacted the IFED to report what appeared to be suspicious circumstances. Detectives working for the organisation sought assistance from the West Yorkshire police in the morning of the operation. The incident comes in tandem with an increased number of fraudulent whiplash injury claims in the UK. The IFED was relatively recently set up and is paid for by funding from the insurance industry with the sole purpose of battling bogus personal injury compensation claims which are suspected to cost around £3 billion a year in fraudulent and, ultimately, criminal activity.
Since the inception of the organisation earlier this year, its officers have made a considerable number of arrests for personal injury compensation claims and also false claims for sickness, stolen property and missing animals. The head of the organisation, David Wood stated that “in a short space of time IFED has sent out a clear message that insurance fraud in all its forms will not be tolerated, wherever it has been committed.”
Wood went on to say that he is concerned that there is a public perception that making such bogus claims for personal injury or stolen property is viewed as acceptable by many UK residents. He finished the statement by saying that making these arrests In Keighley is evidence of just how committed the IFED are to changing this concerning perception.