Fraud Conference 2011 - Neil Cook was a guest speaker

jml Property Insurance blog site Friday 19th August 2011

Back in August we featured on this blog a piece aboit Insurance Broker Neil Cook who was going to take part in the Fraud Confernce in October. (See blog Here)

Neil has now sent us further information about the event.

Fraud event: Disagreement over point to target fraudsters



Application fraudsters are ‘hiding behind the web’ but disagreement reigns over whether to target scammers at the point of quote or sale. Panellist Steve Sweeney, head of motor insurance at Money Supermarket, said his firm is working towards stamping out fraud at the point of quote but needs the help of the industry.

“The internet is a soft touch,” he conceded, “as it is more problematic to lie to someone face-to-face. This is not about eradicating people’s ability to buy insurance but, if people want to tell lies on online channels, then we can stop that. We have to bring things up the value chain to point of quote.”



Matt Gilham, head of financial crime at Esure, added that underwriters face difficulties because they do not have the customer’s payment information, while customers take advantage of 
aggregators being volume-driven and “hide behind the web”. He said insurers must decide whether they want to tackle insurance fraud at point of quote, by giving or declining one; at point of sale; or afterwards.


“It comes down to the underwriter, what they want to achieve and at what point their acceptance of risk lies. Is it turning away business before you quote or having procedures in place to challenge applications and issues such as non-disclosure?”


Neil Cook, head of specialist risks at TR Youngs, said: “If the insurer does not want to sell that person insurance, then the aggregator should not do it. Otherwise reputations suffer and more people get angry with the insurance industry.”

T R Youngs Insurance Brokers (Allystyles Insurance) advertises their specialist insurance products on the jml insurance website - Products include business insurance, Ex-offender  insurance, Northern Ireland residents insurance, Flood damaged property insurance,  Underpinned - Subsidence Property Insurance and a lot more. Neil can be contacted Here

Allstyles Insurance have recently started promoting their Scooter and Motorbike Insurance on the jml Insurance site Find out more Here