INSURANCE FRAUD
Insurance fraud costs Australian businesses millions of dollars each year. The most common kind of insurance fraud is a one-off theft when a worker exaggerates their personal compensation claims. These exaggerated or misleading claims include workers compensation claims, income protection claims, and public liability or personal injury claims.
Not only do these insurance claims cost companies a huge amount of money, they also result in increased premiums from the insurance funds. This means that your business is being financially hit from both ends when insurance fraud happens.
Because there are many different kinds of insurance fraud, it can be very difficult to detect, especially within large companies and companies that rely on manual labour. Other kinds of insurance fraud include that committed by a fraud professional, someone who purposely creates situations from which they can claim insurance. Or, insurance fraud can be committed by an organised group of criminals. While this latter kind of fraud is definitely of concern, it is not very common. The kind of fraud that business owners should look out for is opportunistic fraud committed by individuals. Be especially suspicious of individuals and employees who have benefited from a major insurance claim in the past. It can be difficult to find out whether someone has been involved in potentially fraudulent insurance claims, so that’s where a detective investigator can be of great assistance.
If you suspect an employee has committed insurance fraud, the best way to be certain is to hire an investigator to conduct surveillance and provide evidence of the fraud. For example, if the individual has claimed major and ongoing personal injury, yet can comfortably spend a Saturday afternoon playing cricket, or go out drinking on a Friday night, then they have likely committed fraud. A detective can help you sort out the validity of insurance claims, and if insurance fraud has occurred, they can help you settle the case discreetly, with all necessary evidence provided.
Despite the Occupational Health and Safety policies and measures that are in place at every workplace to protect your employees, accidents do happen. However, these OH&S measures should remove much of the danger, especially of serious injury. So if a worker is claiming an injury that should not have been possible, it is worth properly investigating their claims. While many insurance fraud claims are simply exaggerated, some are purposely planned, manipulated and misrepresented. Thus it is advisable to have a private detective investigate suspicious, large or unusual claims to assess a claim’s validity. Our investigators will supply you with accurate and reliable information, to safeguard your company against unnecessary and avoidable losses. It can also be worth making sure your employees know that the penalty for insurance fraud can include large fines and/or imprisonment.
If you believe that one of your employees has made a false or misleading statement in regards to their insurance claim, please call us today to discuss your case with one of our highly qualified detectives.