Stranger added my husband as a named driver on insurance

IrishRover1991

Hi all, 

Bit of an odd one, but it appears that someone unknown to us added my husband as a named driver on their car insurance and subsequently claimed he was driving in an accident claim lodged in early 2022. 

We were surprised to learn this, as my husband did not pass his driver's test until June 2023 and we did not buy a car or apply for insurance until October 2023. It was only when we applied for our own insurance using a price comparison site that we discovered he was considered to have already made a claim. 

We would like to find out how this could have happened and on whose insurance the claim was actually lodged. My husband has not been in the driver's seat for years, though he did have a provisional license from his teens that he often used as ID. He handed this over to multiple private landlords over the years, thinking it was a safer bet than offering up his passport. It never occurred to either of us that someone could use the information on it to do this. We only realised how easily it could be done when he added me as a named driver to our own policy - I just handed him my license and I heard nothing further about it. 

We've scoured the internet for advice on this but can find no information about what to do next. Advice gratefully accepted!

DullGreyGuy

He should do a Data Subject Access Request to CUE which is managed by the MIB
https://www.mib.org.uk/managing-insurance-data/requesting-your-data 

It's more likely that someone with the same name was driving another vehicle and was involved in an accident. CUE often has minimal data on the Driver if it's not the Policyholder so any matching is done on fuzzy logic with a % chance of it being the same person or not. 

Wouldn't colour the DSAR process by rationalising the reason for the request, just simply state you want all data they hold on him including claims.

IrishRover1991

DullGreyGuy said:

He should do a Data Subject Access Request to CUE which is managed by the MIB <URL>

It's more likely that someone with the same name was driving another vehicle and was involved in an accident. CUE often has minimal data on the Driver if it's not the Policyholder so any matching is done on fuzzy logic with a % chance of it being the same person or not. 

Wouldn't colour the DSAR process by rationalising the reason for the request, just simply state you want all data they hold on him including claims.

Thanks for the advice - we did this at the time but the data request returned nothing. We're kicking ourselves for not taking screenshots of the claim as it appeared when we first applied, as it was very specific about the date of the incident. Maybe it'll appear next time we renew and we can chase it further! We were just amazed that it could be done with no alert to or verification required from the person allegedly involved, especially as lots of people use their driving license as ID these days.

DullGreyGuy

IrishRover1991 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

He should do a Data Subject Access Request to CUE which is managed by the MIB <URL>

It's more likely that someone with the same name was driving another vehicle and was involved in an accident. CUE often has minimal data on the Driver if it's not the Policyholder so any matching is done on fuzzy logic with a % chance of it being the same person or not. 

Wouldn't colour the DSAR process by rationalising the reason for the request, just simply state you want all data they hold on him including claims.

Thanks for the advice - we did this at the time but the data request returned nothing. We're kicking ourselves for not taking screenshots of the claim as it appeared when we first applied, as it was very specific about the date of the incident. Maybe it'll appear next time we renew and we can chase it further! We were just amazed that it could be done with no alert to or verification required from the person allegedly involved, especially as lots of people use their driving license as ID these days.

What makes you think they had his driving license number?

In the claim system I used, many moons ago, the Driver was simply a free text field if you selected "Other" rather than one on the named driver list and didn't capture any details other than the name. 

Grumpy_chap

IrishRover1991 said:

Hi all, 

Bit of an odd one, but it appears that someone unknown to us added my husband as a named driver on their car insurance and subsequently claimed he was driving in an accident claim lodged in early 2022. 

We were surprised to learn this, as my husband did not pass his driver's test until June 2023 and we did not buy a car or apply for insurance until October 2023. It was only when we applied for our own insurance using a price comparison site that we discovered he was considered to have already made a claim. 

We would like to find out how this could have happened and on whose insurance the claim was actually lodged. My husband has not been in the driver's seat for years, though he did have a provisional license from his teens that he often used as ID. He handed this over to multiple private landlords over the years, thinking it was a safer bet than offering up his passport. It never occurred to either of us that someone could use the information on it to do this. We only realised how easily it could be done when he added me as a named driver to our own policy - I just handed him my license and I heard nothing further about it. 

We've scoured the internet for advice on this but can find no information about what to do next. Advice gratefully accepted!

My first thought here is whether it really is your husband, or a mix-up on names.
How common are your husband's first and last names?
Have they matched other details - DoB, address, etc?

DullGreyGuy

Grumpy_chap said:

Have they matched other details - DoB, address, etc?

CUE doesn't hold DOB for drivers