Our TV channels, especially BBC is indeed public spirited that most of its morning programmes are consumer oriented and that include, besides Claimed and Shamed, Caught on Camera, Sheriffs are Coming, Rip-off Britain, Homes under Hammer and many more. There are also some good medical programs like Doctors, although most story-lines are social oriented to provide family entertainment, occasionally concentrating on rare as well as common medical conditions that may enhance our knowledge.
Some of these programmes are worth watching, especially for those who are elderly and at home, as we can learn so much from them. My favourite programme is “Claimed and Shamed” mainly dealing with fraudulent insurance claims that has become plague, increasing our insurance premium by some £50, industry receiving 300 such false claims every hour, costing industry more than billion pounds.
Now insurance companies are fighting back with vengeance, investigating each and every claim that may raise slightest suspicion. It mainly affects house burglaries and car accidents involving whiplash injuries. But as our streets, busses, homes and shops are inundated with CCTV cameras, it is impossible to get away, especially now that every insurance company either have their own well-equipped fraud investigators or employs services of such experts who could not be fooled easily.
Moreover insurance companies exchange such details, have created common register where every claim is logged, going back decades. Most honest policy holders hardly make one or two claims in a life-time. So often whiplash involves up to four passengers besides driver when there are no passengers in the car and there may be hardly a dent in cars involved in fake accidents. All these incidents are caught on CCTV, perpetrators prosecuted with their names going on fraud registers, thus they will never be able to insure their cars and homes, making them pariah.
House and shop burglaries are also high on fraud list. As our personal debts spiral out of control, many erroneously believe that fraudulent claims will be the answer, claiming thousands for loss of valuables that include expensive jewellery, watches and cash withdrawn from bank account couple of days before. It is not unusual for people to claim £100k and in one case it was £1:2 million. Some people are so stubborn that they take insurance companies who refuse to pay out to court, inevitably losing the case and lumbered with huge legal bill that will ruin their lives for ever. We should understand that there is no easy way out of debt except hard work and believe in the saying “Honesty is the best policy” if you want to sleep peacefully at night!
Kumudini Valambia
By email
