Lifa Assurance - payout when killed commiting criminal act?

Careful_with_that_Axe

Recently found out an old neighbour of mine was electrocuted trying to steal some copperwork when he tried to run his drill from a mains power cable. Unfortunately, he leaves a wife and two young children.

It got me thinking; would life cover pay out given that he was killed while carrying out a criminal act.

Just curious.

ACG

It depends on the insurance company - i think most would pay out.
Hopefully any payout would get paid to the company who no doubt had to pay to fix the problems or anyone that spent time without electric. But thats probably wishful thinking.

InsideInsurance

ACG wrote: »

Hopefully any payout would get paid to the company who no doubt had to pay to fix the problems or anyone that spent time without electric. But thats probably wishful thinking.

A little harsh given the beneficiaries are the wife & kids and not the "criminal" and there is nothing to say the deceased was a career criminal which the wife knew and supported.

I would agree that most wouldnt exclude it simply because of the challenges it would create as ultimately everything would circumstantial as the deceased evidently wont be put on trial and you are "innocent until proven guilty"

agrinnall

I agree with InsideInsurance, any payout would rightly go to the beneficiaries of the policy. Should the company affected by the crime wish to then sue the beneficiaries to recover their costs they can of course do so, although I'm not sure that the publicity would be good for them.

dunstonh

Having had a few rail journeys affected by cable theft I am going to be very blunt and say that at least there is one less person out there doing it.

Crime doesnt pay. Certainly didnt in this case.

mikey72

dunstonh wrote: »

Having had a few rail journeys affected by cable theft I am going to be very blunt and say that at least there is one less person out there doing it.

Crime doesnt pay. Certainly didnt in this case.

Death penalty for delaying your train for a few minutes?

Seems a bit severe.

I_was_just_wondering

Just a couple of thoughts...

I assume that if the electricity company decided to sue, they would sue the deceased's estate. So if the deceased was the beneficiary of the life policy, the money would form part of his estate and could potentially be taken by the elec company.

If the policy was written in trust to his wife and kids, the money would go straight to them, so I guess the elec company wouldn't be able to get it. (Perhaps the moral here is if you plan to undertake dangerous crimes, make sure your life policies are written in trust.)



But I'm not sure I agree with this sentiment:

InsideInsurance wrote: »

A little harsh given the beneficiaries are the wife & kids and not the "criminal" and there is nothing to say the deceased was a career criminal which the wife knew and supported."

We don't know the circumstances of this, but here is an alternative scenario:

A criminal rips all the wiring out of YOUR house (and plans to sell it for scrap for £50) and does £10k worth of damage to your house. (The elec company probably doesn't have insurance cover for criminal damage, so let's assume you don't have insurance cover for this either.) The criminal electrocutes himself in the process and dies.

Would YOU want to sue his estate for £10k plus the cost of alternative accommodation while it's fixed etc. Or would the criminal's wife and kids be a higher priority?



Going back to the original question from the OP, is it different because the victim of the crime was a big faceless electrictry company?

Is it a bit like it's OK to steal from Tesco, because they're big and can afford it, but it's not OK to steal from the local corner shop?

mikey72

I_was_just_wondering wrote: »

Just a couple of thoughts...

I assume that if the electricity company decided to sue, they would sue the deceased's estate. So if the deceased was the beneficiary of the life policy, the money would form part of his estate and could potentially be taken by the elec company.

If the policy was written in trust to his wife and kids, the money would go straight to them, so I guess the elec company wouldn't be able to get it. (Perhaps the moral here is if you plan to undertake dangerous crimes, make sure your life policies are written in trust.)



But I'm not sure I agree with this sentiment:




We don't know the circumstances of this, but here is an alternative scenario:

A criminal rips all the wiring out of YOUR house (and plans to sell it for scrap for £50) and does £10k worth of damage to your house. (The elec company probably doesn't have insurance cover for criminal damage, so let's assume you don't have insurance cover for this either.) The criminal electrocutes himself in the process and dies.

Would YOU want to sue his estate for £10k plus the cost of alternative accommodation while it's fixed etc. Or would the criminal's wife and kids be a higher priority?



Going back to the original question from the OP, is it different because the victim of the crime was a big faceless electrictry company?

Is it a bit like it's OK to steal from Tesco, because they're big and can afford it, but it's not OK to steal from the local corner shop?

It depends on whether everything is black and white, or if you have some shades of grey in there.

dunstonh

Death penalty for delaying your train for a few minutes?

Seems a bit severe.

Hours not minutes plus it has cost money as well. Multiply that across the thousands that get affected by it.

Yes it is severe but those doing it know its a risk. If they are foolish enough to do it knowing that its possible then it is their own fault.

cajef

Assume it is this the OP is referring to, apparently they could not switch the power off for several hours to recover him as the cable supplied power to machines for patients on dialysis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-15889043

mikey72

dunstonh wrote: »

Hours not minutes plus it has cost money as well. Multiply that across the thousands that get affected by it.

Yes it is severe but those doing it know its a risk. If they are foolish enough to do it knowing that its possible then it is their own fault.

Death penalty for delaying thousands of people?

Hope I don't cause an accident on a motorway in front of you.