Esure drives out car insurance fraud

Thursday, 13 November 2008 12:00

Esure has launched a clamp-down on customers who mislead the insurer into believing they are driving their children's cars to reduce premiums.

The practice, known as fronting, is commonly used by parents who insure a car which is primarily used by their son and daughter.

The parent uses their own address when often their driving-age child is using the car in a different location, such as their university.

And while by pretending they are the main driver, and the car is based at their address, makes the insurer think they are a lower risk, esure said these customers were actually committing fraud.

It has trained staff to be on the alert for tell-tale signals of fronting. These signs include young drivers calling to arrange car insurance in their parent's name or giving their own mobile phone number as contact details for a parent's policy.

Mike Pickard, head of risk and underwriting at esure, said: "Fronting is fraud despite many people thinking it is a legitimate way of massaging premiums down with a few white lies."

He added: "With household purse strings tightening, parents may be tempted to do this to slash the cost of their son or daughter's car insurance but, if detected, insurers could treat the policy as invalid.

"Honesty is the best policy when it comes to car insurance."

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