Insurance fraud costs each household €150 each year. Among the most common cases are car theft and false claims reporting. Our lawyer details the dangers to which you expose yourself in the event of insurance fraud.
Types of Insurance Fraud
Insurance fraud is of two types. We distinguish, on the one hand, fraud in subscribing to the contract and, on the other hand, fraud in reporting the claim.
Contract fraud involves, for example, inaccurately indicating the value of the insured item or insuring an item that does not exist or omitting data.
Declaration fraud during the contract consists of describing a claim inaccurately, exaggerating the extent of the damage or even falsifying documents.
Sanctions
From a criminal point of view, insurance fraud is not defined as such in the Penal Code.
However, numerous provisions allow the insurer to file a complaint against the fraudster, such as fraud, forgery, false testimony and arson.
Furthermore, the injured insurer can also rely on the law on land insurance contracts to cancel or terminate the insurance contract.
To do this, the insurer draws a distinction between fraud and good faith forgetting, with unintentional breaches being treated more flexibly.
The insurer will not be required to compensate the insured who intentionally caused a loss and may keep the premiums already paid.
In addition, the name of the fraudster as well as those of the people involved in the fraud will be entered in the Datassur file for a period of 10 years.
This will have the consequence that the fraudster will experience certain difficulties in taking out another policy with another insurer who has consulted the said file.
Recommendations
Prioritize transparency and frankness with your insurer! Provide them with correct and complete information or risk facing serious sanctions.
