Auto insurance fraud affects all premium payers in Manitoba: MPI

Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) is encouraging citizens to come forward and speak out against auto insurance fraud, something that if left undetected, has an impact on all honest Manitobans.

MaryAnn Kempe, vice-president of community and corporate affairs for MPI, says citizens of the province can use MPI’s dedicated TIPS Line, a valuable source of information for members of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU).

The corporation reports that efforts by the SIU, which investigates abut 3,000 claims annually, resulted in fraud savings last year of more than $9 million for Manitoba auto insurance ratepayers.

“This financial figure is based on an estimate of money recovered and fraudulent claims denied,” Kempe says in an MPI statement. The savings are the direct result of focusing on “all aspects of auto insurance fraud, be it organized groups, vehicle fires, hit and run or bodily injury.”

Insurance fraud – automobile, home or health care – costs Canadians more than $3 billion a year in insurance premiums, MPI reports, citing information from the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Organizations around the world lose an estimated 5% of their annual revenues to fraud, MPI adds, based on findings of a survey of fraud experts conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.