Estonia, Financial Services, Insurance, Legislation

While in 2012, the total number of cases of insurance fraud ascertained by insurance companies fell by nearly 25%, the amount of money the fraudsters tried to get grew by over 26%, Estonian Insurance Companies Union announced.

In 2010 and 2011 the number of ascertained insurance fraud cases was 330 and 327 respectively.

While in 2011, the monetary volume of the fraud reached 1.88 million euros, last year it grew to 2.38 million euros. The growth came from addition of a few very large scale insurance fraud cases – while in 2010 and 2011, the biggest ascertained fraud cases remained below 100,000 euros, last year there was an attempt to get nearly 400,000 euros.

The Union's damage prevention manager Erik Ernits stated that the tendency of growth of sums refers to organised groups and wilful crimes.

Ernits said that it is positive that all types of insurance fraud fell last year. The number of cases where insurance case was staged or wilfully caused fell most. That concerned mainly staged traffic accidents and thefts.