Fraudsters claim 'stolen' laptop over 100 times, now pay back 90,000 euros
Two men who committed extensive fraud with travel insurance must now pay over 90,000 euros. They took out over a hundred short-term insurance policies, and then wrongly claimed a laptop stolen in England on almost all of those policies.
This is evident from a recently published ruling by the Overijssel court. The men must not only repay the money from the false damage claims, but also pay for unpaid insurance premiums and costs.
Insurance fraudAt the end of 2023, insurance company Unigarant received a tip from the Insurance Fraud Combating Center of the Dutch Association of Insurers about possible fraud with its travel insurance.
Subsequent investigation revealed that over a hundred short-term travel insurance policies had been taken out in the names of non-existent policyholders. Over a hundred claims had subsequently been filed on these policies.
Almost all claims involved a laptop stolen in London worth 699 or 799 euros. The insurance claims were made with an online police report and a purchase invoice from Coolblue.
73,000 euros paid outApparently, the flood of similar claims did not ring a bell with the insurer. Because Unigarant initially paid out more than 73,000 euros in damages without any problems, into various bank accounts. After discovering the fraud, the insurance company went to court to claim the money back from the suspects.
That turned out not to be so easy. One of the suspected men denied involvement in the fraud in court. He suggested the possibility that he had been the victim of identity fraud.
He also claimed that the insurer should not have paid the claims because the insurance premiums for the policies had remained unpaid. The other suspect did not show up at all.
RefundBased on the insurer's research data, including outdated bank details, the court ultimately ruled that it was sufficiently plausible that the men were responsible for the insurance fraud. As a result, they are also liable for the damage.
They now have to repay Unigarant 73,000 euros in wrongly paid out claims. According to the judge, the insurance company was not seriously to blame for the fact that this money was paid out while the premiums for the travel insurance had not been paid.
Bill is running upThe men now also have to pay those unpaid premiums. That will cost them another 7,000 euros. And finally, they will have to pay the insurer's investigation and legal costs, a total of around 10,000 euros. That brings the total bill for the duo to over 90,000 euros.
Whether and how the insurer actually expects to collect this amount from the two men is still unclear. Unigarant was unreachable today. As a result, the company could not explain how it was possible that the duo could successfully have so many false claims paid out on unpaid policies for such a long time.
Health insurers are also struggling with fraud, presenter Renze Klamer explains in the video below:
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