The auto insurer had recommended that charges be laid against 100 people, last year, for a range of scams.
The ICBC has now released a list of the oddest insurance fraud cases that its investigators were able to detect in 2014, which included everything from airbag evidence, failed impersonations, and even a conspiracy involving time travel.
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia has estimated that between 10 and 15 percent of its claims aren’t truthful.
The data from the ICBC has stated that it feels that between 10 and 15 percent of the auto claims that it receives involve some component of insurance fraud or exaggeration of the truth. Because of that, it has two different special investigation teams that work to spot the scams from among the honest claims. In 2014, those teams recommended 131 charges to the Crown prosecutors. Those charges were made against 100 people, and resulted in a 90 percent conviction rate.
Now, the most interesting among the insurance fraud cases that were detected have been released.
Possibly the most unique that has been seen by the insurer was a claim that involved an attempt to create a “time travel” conspiracy. A driver was involved in a fender bender while behind the wheel with an expired license. As she did not have the best possible auto insurance to cover the damage to both of the vehicles involved, she asked the driver of the other car to claim that the crash had happened the following day. When that second driver refused, the first driver decided to purchase optional insurance on her way home, before making the accident claim. She was caught and was required to pay for the repairs to both vehicles out of her own pocket, at a final cost of $7,400.
In another weird claim, a driver who was banned from driving at the time, said that his vehicle had been stolen just before the accident took place. However, the driver’s DNA was discovered on the airbag. This brought about a fine of $1,000 and a requirement that he pay for the cost of the damages, himself, at a total cost of $18,000.
One case of insurance fraud involved a failed impersonation, in which a driver who had been pulled over by police for using a cell phone while behind the wheel had been found to have also been driving while under a 90 day prohibition that had been issued only two days beforehand. He received a one year driving ban after having been charged. In order to continue to be able to drive, he used a friend’s name to obtain an interim driver’s license and changed his vehicle to his friend’s name, as well. Facial recognition software was used by ICBC to catch and charge the impersonator, who was then fined under the Criminal Code for a total of $2,875.