Every minute in Britain an insurance fraud is detected, according to industry figures.
Over 562,000 insurance frauds were uncovered last year, said the Association of British Insurers.
About 113,000 were dishonest claims, valued at £1.3bn and while the number of dishonest claims fell 8%, the value of those claims rose 1%.
Organised frauds such as staged “crash for cash” motor accidents fell 22% on 2016, with fraud worth £158m uncovered, and this was probably down to the growth and use of dash-cams to record incidents which are passed onto insurers or police.
James Dalton, ABI’s director for general insurance policy, said, “The vast majority of insurance customers are honest, and they rightly resent fraudsters pushing up their insurance costs.
“This is why the industry makes no apology for spending around £250m a year on measures to tackle insurance fraud. It is good that organised fraud fell, especially as scams like staged accidents can often put lives at risk and involve huge amounts of money.
“But, with the Insurance Fraud Bureau currently investigating a rising number of suspected insurance frauds, there will be no let-up in the crackdown on the insurance cheats. The rise in opportunistic motor fraud highlights that the stricter regulation of claims management companies, some of whom encourage dishonest claims, cannot come in soon enough.”