Pet Insurance Fraud

HUNDREDS of pets are being killed and maimed by callous owners to get insurance cash, investigators revealed yesterday.

Fake compensation claims quadrupled last year — with almost £2MILLION worth of fraud detected.
Some owners bump off their pets so they can claim an early-death payout. Others deliberately harm their animals — then claim they were injured in accidents.

Some cats and dogs also disappear mysteriously to cash in on policies that pay out if an animal is lost or stolen, says the Association of British Insurers.

The sick scam mirrors the "cash for crash" claims made on cars that are deliberately damaged for the insurance payouts.

Insurance experts say the pet payouts swindle is now the fastest growing area in the industry — and believe some vets must be involved.

One trick is to include claims for vet treatments that have not been carried out. Some healthy pets have even been deliberately put down to claim the insurance.

Fraud investigator Carys Clarke said £420,000 in bogus pet claims was detected in 2009, but this jumped to £1,929,900 last year — and the true scale is probably far higher.

She added: "The deliberate destruction or maiming of an animal can be disguised as an accident."
Last year there were 2.3million cats and dogs insured.

The ABI is now arranging a database of information about insured animals to help detect fraud.