Caught with insurance fraud

BBB

Okay, I've had insurance on every phone I've had and never had to claim, I upgraded to the N96 and got insurance with that, I then sold that and got an iphone 3G, I'd had the phone 3 days and meant to transfer the insurance over to the iphone and didn't. It then got stolen from my workplace. I rang my home insurance to see if it was covered on that and it wasn't so i rang the phone insurance and they said no because I'd not notified them.

I was prepared to take the hit and cope without until I was ill advised to just get a seperate iphone cover and then claim on it in a few months time. Which I did (I hadn't reported the iphone as being stolen, I just called my phone provider to advise them I'd lost my sim card).

2 weeks ago, I contacted O2 to let them know my iphone had been stolen and contacted the police for a loss reference number, I then made the call to the iphone insurance company to let them know it'd been lost and they said I'd have a decision within the next 2 days.

I then got a letter from them to say, the number I'd reported stolen had been used just once on X date, then Y sim card was put in the phone and used up until Z when Y sim card was reported stolen, they refused my claim on the grounds that they felt I'd commited insurance fraud and would be passed to their fraud department.

What's going to happen next? Will I be arrested and get a criminal record?

I know I've been an absolute moron and don't need to be told twice.

Cheers.

prowla

I think you've just fessed up on the Interweb!

dacouch

In a lot of instances the Insurers will not take it any further eg won't inform the police.

Your problem will be that they will now cancel / void your policy, this will be registered on a central database and will make it very very difficult for you to get any type of Insurance policy again. When taking out insurance you will be asked if you have had a policy cancelled or voided and if you answer this incorrectly when you make a claim it likely to come out again and that claim will be refused and they may actually inform the police.

Why on earth did you think it was ok to claim put in this fraudulent claim, did you not realise that its fraud.

Crazy_Jamie

BBB wrote:

What's going to happen next? Will I be arrested and get a criminal record?

Possible, but unlikely. As dacouch said the more likely outcome is simply that the policy will be voided, but as he also stated this will have consequences for you in terms of securing insurance in future.

I'm not going to preach at you because, whilst the reasons why you did it are known only to you, it was a moment of utter stupidity that you seem to now fully admit and are going to have to face the consequences of. Just remember that the consequences that you are likely to have to deal with from this (i.e. a voided insurance policy) are not nearly as bad as they could have been. If you do anything like this again you will be risking a criminal record.

BBB

Thanks for the advice. I did it because I stupidly thought I'd get away with it and had insurance before.

I've got home insurance with my bank and now have full contents and personal possessions cover, rest assured nothing like this will ever happen again!

Kavanne

your home insurance may become invalid as they will ask if you have ever had insurance cancelled before. they do say this in the T&Cs. might be worth called up your home insurance and asking (anonymously) if you need to inform them of this in the middle of an insurance term or only once your renewal comes through.

cogito

Kavanne wrote: »

your home insurance may become invalid as they will ask if you have ever had insurance cancelled before. they do say this in the T&Cs. might be worth called up your home insurance and asking (anonymously) if you need to inform them of this in the middle of an insurance term or only once your renewal comes through.

He hasn't had his insurance cancelled.

Kavanne

cogito wrote: »

He hasn't had his insurance cancelled.

but the mob insurance might do now they have rejected a claim due to suspected fraud!!

LadyIndecisive

This is a classic 'treating your policy like a bank account' scenario; ie. 'I've paid enough premiums, must be time to make a withdrawal and cash in'....

You may find yourself registered on the CIFAS fraud register if your claim has been repudiated on the basis of fraud. It is not necessary for there to be Police interest for this to happen. Not only will you find insurance difficult to obtain but you may find yourself effectively 'black listed' by all manner of financial services companies. see www.cifas.org.uk

Falsely reporting the theft of a mobile is a criminal offence, you could be charged and fined for wasting Police time. The mobile phone insurer is unlikely to make a complaint to the Police regarding the insurance fraud.

Pee

It is very weird how they know this. A friend broke his phone and phoned to claim but he didn't phone within the set time, used the SIM card in another phone. When he rang up, they were able to tell him the date it had broken and that he had been using the SIM card in another phone.

Learn your lesson and move on, and I hope there are no further repurcussions - sounds like it will be an issue with future insurance but nothing more.

dacouch

Pee wrote: »

It is very weird how they know this. A friend broke his phone and phoned to claim but he didn't phone within the set time, used the SIM card in another phone. When he rang up, they were able to tell him the date it had broken and that he had been using the SIM card in another phone.

Learn your lesson and move on, and I hope there are no further repurcussions - sounds like it will be an issue with future insurance but nothing more.

They know this as each phone has an "IME" (Its own sort of serial number), it is broadcast each time you use the phone. This is why when you ring up your phone company they know what type of phone you have. They use the IME number to block a stolen phone