£625 Million of Detected Motor Fraud Costs Honest Drivers, ABI Figures Show

• Insurers detected 51,900 fraudulent motor claims worth £625 million in 2025, up from £576 million in 2024, ABI figures published on 6 October 2026 show.
• The average detected motor fraud claim was about £12,000, around 2.5 times the £4,900 average genuine motor claim the ABI reported for Q2 2026.
• Motor made up 55% of all detected insurance fraud cases, and the Insurance Fraud Bureau says the cost falls on honest consumers.

Insurers caught £625 million of fraudulent motor claims in 2025, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) annual fraud figures, published on 6 October 2026. That is 8.5% more than the £576 million detected in 2024, and it came from almost the same number of cases: 51,900 last year against 51,700 the year before. Spread across the year, that is about 142 fraudulent motor claims caught every day, worth about £1.7 million a day (both Motoring Chronicle calculations from the ABI totals). The 8.5% rise is a Motoring Chronicle calculation from the two ABI totals.

The average bogus motor claim was about £12,000, which the ABI said was the second highest figure it has recorded from 2015. For comparison, the ABI’s Q2 2026 motor claims data put the average genuine payout at £4,900. On those two figures, a detected fraudulent claim is worth roughly 2.5 times a normal one (a Motoring Chronicle calculation, £12,000 divided by £4,900).

Who pays? Ursula Jallow, director at the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), said: “Insurance fraud is devastating. It costs honest consumers when times are already tough.” None of the coverage of the ABI release that Motoring Chronicle reviewed gives a per-policy cost, so this article does not put a pound figure on the effect on any one premium.

Why Fewer Bogus Claims Are Now Costing More

Across every type of general insurance, insurers detected £1.34 billion of fraudulent claims in 2025, up 14% from £1.18 billion in 2024. The number of cases fell 2.7% to 93,900, so the average detected fraud rose to £14,300. That is the second highest average on ABI records, behind £14,600 in 2022.

Mark Allen, head of fraud and financial crime at the ABI, said the rate of detected fraud slipped last year but that fraudsters are going after much bigger payouts. He added that wider access to technology such as AI will give them new ways to exploit the system.

The ABI’s figures for 2024, reported at the time, put motor fraud at 51,700 cases worth £576 million, up 5% on 2023 and 53% of all detected cases. In 2025 that share rose to 55%. The ABI’s 2024 release put the all-lines total at £1.16 billion, while the 2025 release compares against £1.18 billion, which suggests the 2024 figure has been revised upward after it was first published. Trade reports of the 2025 release also derived a 2024 case count of about 96,500 from the ABI’s stated percentage change, so all-lines case comparisons carry more uncertainty than the pound totals.

Motor remains the biggest category, at 55% of all detected cases. Property fraud followed the same pattern as motor: cases fell 6.2% to 17,700, but the average property claim reached a record £11,400. Travel was the fastest riser, with detected cases up 85% to 4,500, but their combined value was only £8.6 million.

By type, exaggerated loss was again the most common fraud, at 26,900 cases across all insurance lines, where a genuine loss is inflated. Contrived incidents, where the crash, theft or other event is staged from the start, rose about 30% to around 5,600 cases. Insurers also said they stopped fraudulent applications worth £1.8 billion, typically where people hide or misstate information to get cover or cut their premium.

Individual insurers report the same trend. Aviva said it detected more than 18,400 suspect claims worth £233 million across its brands, including Direct Line, in 2025, with a 39% rise in the value of detected motor fraud. Allianz UK said its fraud team identified more than 34,200 cases and saved nearly £174 million, up 10.5% on 2024.

Temporary Detective Chief Inspector Simon Klust, head of the City of London Police Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, said more than 250 fraudulent insurance claims are detected every day, and that this is “likely to be just the tip of the iceberg”.

Where Fraud Meets Your Renewal Quote

The ABI’s Q2 2026 data put the average premium paid at £566, up £6 on the previous quarter and £14 lower than a year earlier in real terms. Confused.com and WTW’s Q3 2026 price index, which tracks quotes for new customers, put the average at £713, which is £22 (3%) lower than a year earlier and £282 below the December 2023 peak of £995. The two measures differ, as one tracks premiums paid and the other tracks quotes, but neither shows prices rising right now.

So nothing in these figures proves that fraud is pushing up your renewal this year. The IFB’s point is that fraud is a cost the industry carries, and that honest customers share it. What the figures do show is the scale: £625 million of detected motor fraud in one year, from 51,900 cases.

The detected total is also only part of the story. Insurers can only count the fraud they catch, which is why the police chief quoted above described the daily detection rate as the tip of the iceberg.

Can You Avoid Motor Fraud and Its Costs?

You cannot step outside the industry-wide cost, but you can cut your own exposure, and avoid becoming part of the statistics by accident. These are the steps that apply to ordinary drivers.

Be accurate on every quote. The £1.8 billion of stopped applications shows how closely insurers look at the details people enter. Understating your mileage, hiding a conviction, or leaving out a modification can all be treated as misrepresentation. The usual outcomes are a cancelled policy or a refused claim, and a cancellation has to be declared on future quotes.

Do not front. Fronting means naming an experienced driver, often a parent, as the main driver on a policy when someone else, often a young driver, does most of the driving. It is treated as application fraud, so it sits inside the £1.8 billion figure above. Adding the young driver as the named main driver gives a higher quote, but the cover is valid and a claim is not at risk of being refused.

Spot a ghost broker. A ghost broker sells fake or invalid cover, often via social media, at a price well below any comparison quote. Check any broker on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Register before paying, and pay the insurer or a regulated broker, not a personal bank account. After buying, check your number plate on askMID.com, the Motor Insurance Database look-up. If the car does not show as insured, you are not covered. The IFB has previously warned about ghost brokers targeting learner and young drivers on social media.

Protect yourself from a staged crash. Contrived incidents rose about 30% last year. A dashcam is the strongest protection, as footage settles disputes about who braked, who pulled out and how many people were in the other vehicle. After any collision, photograph both vehicles, the road and the number plates, count the occupants, and take the details of independent witnesses. Do not agree a cash settlement at the roadside, and pass the claim to your own insurer.

Report what you see. The IFB runs a free, confidential CheatLine for reporting suspected fraud, including offers of cover that look too cheap and approaches to take part in a claim.

Shop around at renewal. Confused.com’s Q3 2026 index found that 51% of drivers received a higher renewal price in the past three months, and that those who shopped around after a higher offer saved £80 on average compared with their renewal price. Fraud is a cost you cannot control, but the price you pay for the same cover is one you can.

Sources:

• Insurance Business: Fewer fraud cases, fatter claims as average scam hits £14,300 (6 October 2026)
• Insurance Business: Insurance fraud in UK climbs to record £1.16 billion, ABI (2024 comparison figures)
• Confused.com Car Insurance Price Index Q3 2026
• Insurance Age: Motor insurance payouts hit record £3.2bn in Q2 (ABI Q2 2026 data)