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ONE OF the 1980s issues coming with us into the 1990s is that of auto insurance fraud.

This fact was noted in a recent address by Kesley Merry, the manager of ICRC’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU).

In his presentation Merry noted that, although

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“‘misrating’’ your vehicle’s intended use was bad enough — you could have your claim denied — what he was really concerned about was ‘blatant’? mass fraud that was both a North American and international concern.

“International estimates suggest that between 10 and 20 per cent of all claims dollars paid out by insurance companies go to pay fraud artists,” he noted. “In the United States it is estimated that insurance fraud now runs between $16 and $20 billion each year, and that doesn’t include health care fraud!’

“And fraud is a major concern to ICBC, although with our ‘universal’ provin- cial system, we know that we avoid many of the problems facing insurers in other jurisdictions. But, despite that, fraud does cost B.C.'s driving public tens of mil- lions of dollars each year.’”

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The SIU head went on to note that he considered himself fortunate to be working for an organization that took its responsibility to attack fraud, very seriously. To facilitate that attack, ICBC expanded its SIU unit from nine investigators, to now 24 working out of of- fices in Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna.

“Last year,’ he con- tinued, ‘‘these investigators and the support staff who work with them, were responsible for saving the corporation over $5 million — that’s better than five times the annual salary of that staff.’’

“The fact is, ICBC’s SIU staff is now North America’s largest investigative organization devoted solely to automobile insurance fraud. After all, we are

.Canada’s largest auto in- surer by quite a margin,’’ he added.

In his presentation Merry noted auto theft rings and “chop shops,’’ but said the biggest concern was bodily injury fraud, especially ‘“‘gangs of well-organized criminals staging accidents, faking injuries, or causing real injuries and then claim- ing they were involved in an auto accident.’’

“The point to be made is — we believe that insurance fraud is a serious attack on a valuable provincial social] resource ... A universal auto insurance system that is the envy of many jurisdictions in North America.”

‘Last year we laid nearly 80 criminal charges against people who tried to get something for nothing out of Autoplan. Every time we are able to collect evidence for a criminal prosecution, we

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980-3431

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Insurance fraud a growing concern

secution and publicity are the best ways to ultimately deter this kind of activity..."

Next week this column

make sure the news media knows about it,’’ he con- tinued. because in our view,

“We ‘name names’ pro-

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