Crafty Brits bump up holiday claims

An increasing number of holiday makers are exaggerating or falsifying their 'holiday losses' when making an insurance claim, according to new research from Direct Line. Of these, more than one in 10 admit to increasing the value of their claim by 5%.

To justify these claims, two in 10 slippery Brits (18 per cent) claim they are 'owed' the money because they haven't claimed before. Others (10%) substantiate their dishonesty by saying everyone else claims so why shouldn't they? Thirteen per cent refuse to take responsibility for their actions, blaming their partners instead.

The younger generation (18 to 29 year olds) are the worst offenders, with 33% admitting to telling white lies on claim forms compared to 31% of 30 to 50 year olds and just 7% of over 50s.

Chris Price, business manager at Direct Line Travel Insurance, said: "As a leading insurer we deal with thousands of travel claims a year, the majority of which are genuine. However, it's worrying to see from the results of the research that some consumers appear to underestimate the consequences of their actions. The telling of a 'little white lie' is fraud however they chose to justify it.

"Contemplating committing fraud is a serious matter and we would urge anyone about to claim on their travel insurance not to take this lightly. In order to protect the interests of our honest, genuine customers we do have systems and processes in place designed to detect these fraudsters."

The top false claims are of jewellery (25%), cameras (23%), cash (14%), clothes (12%) and mobile phones (10%).

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