‘All walks of life’: A profile of household insurance fraudsters in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This article provides a profile of a household insurance fraudster based on an analysis of 33 189 dishonest household insurance claims identified by VFM Ltd (a claims handling company using conversation management as an investigative tool). Analysis of the dishonest claims showed marked differences in the profile of fraudsters to some of the published profiles of occupational fraudsters. There is greater gender equality and a wider range of occupations among insurance fraudsters with a peak age range in the 30-50 age groups. Claims made are also generally of low value, less than £500. This article offers insights on the goods claimed, the explanations offered and the seasonality of claiming behaviour. This article suggests household insurance fraud can be linked to Routine Activity Theory and that more research is needed to investigate this further.

Gender, fraud opportunity, and rationalisation

“…Adler (1975) claimed that if given opportunities in economic positions, women would be as greedy and crime prone as men. Previous studies reported samples with more female fraudsters (e.g., AIC/PwC, 2003; Button et al, 2016) or fewer (e.g., ACFE, 2020; Steffensmeier et al, 2013). Nonetheless, Holfreter (2005) cautioned that the increased number might be due to policy changes with greater enforcement and not necessarily reflect the increase in crimes perpetrated by women.…”

“…Framed by gender theory (Holtfreter, 2015; Reisig et al, 2006) with a focus on opportunity (Andon & Free, 2020a; Free, 2015; Sykes & Matza, 1957), we examined a sample of 261 published legal cases in New Zealand between 2000 and 2020. Previous studies that focus on gender-specific forces in terms of opportunity for and rationalisation of crimes have been conducted separately (e.g., Button et al, 2016; Steffensmeier et al, 2013). The literature indicates that white-collar crime rationalisations, opportunity, and fraud nature are constrained by gender (Holtfreter, 2015; Klenowski et al, 2011), yet scholars have not adequately examined these aspects in a single study that considers different levels of legitimate hierarchical positions in the workplace.…”

“…Female fraudsters were younger, less educated, and more vulnerable to asset misappropriation consistent with their lower-tier positions (e.g., Hilliard & Neidermeyer, 2018). Thus, the role of opportunity cannot be underestimated (Benson et al, 2009; Button et al, 2016). Employing both gender and opportunity theory, Hilliard and Neidermeyer (2018) contended that female criminal activity is constrained by their professional positions within an organisation, 1 but they did not examine gender by position and their associated rationalisations.…”

The Private Healthcare Insurance sector: A victim of fraud

“…There is a significant body of research that shows that the ‘public’ see the insurance sector as an acceptable business to defraud (Button et al, 2016; Crocker & Tennyson, 2002; Tennyson, 2008). There is also research highlighting the involvement of the middle classes in a range of white ‘insurance type’ collar crimes (Button & Brooks, 2016; Wiesburd & Waring, 2001) with substantial estimates of national and international funds lost to insurance fraud (Flynn, 2015; Gee & Button, 2015).…”

Insurance Fraud in Korea, Its Seriousness, and Policy Implications

“…In particular, Clarke ( 4 ) laid the foundation of the domain of insurance fraud by examining the extent of insurance fraud and analysing similarities and differences of national responses. More recently, some researchers started to pay attention to insurance fraud and to identify a specific type of insurance fraud to fill the research gap [e.g., ( 5 , 6 )]. However, complex nature of insurance fraud and a lack of empirical data have hampered an accumulation of literature.…”