Allianz Insurance has hosted its first industry event about the increase in fraudulent plant hire theft, to tackle the issue head on.
Following a successful first roundtable, Allianz has planned to set up a new steering group to combat the emerging trend of plant hire theft. The roundtable discussion, hosted last week, was attended by over 40 industry experts including; brokers, insurers, the IFB, plant hirers, technology firms, specialist agencies and the Plant and Agricultural National Intelligence Unit (PANIU).
Back in November, Allianz Engineering, Construction & Power released its own data predicting that overall plant theft could increase by 9%, causing concern for the construction industry.
At the roundtable, discussions surrounded a new trend which includes a fraudulent method seen in plant hire theft, whereby fraudsters go to extreme lengths to fraudulently hire large quantities of high-value plant, whilst pretending to be employed by a genuine company.
"Compromised genuine company information is being used to open Plant Hire accounts with the specific intention of stealing volumes of hire machinery."
Chris Hallett, Insurance Product Manager, Synectics Solutions
Allianz’s head of insurance, engineering underwriting, Steve Kelly said:
"As an industry we continue to witness an increase in the number of fraudulent plant hire thefts. A point raised at our roundtable event was the clear need for data and intelligence to be shared amongst insurers. This would ensure that any spikes in activity could be monitored and measured more effectively.
"A key takeaway from the day reinforced the need for more communication and education of customers about the severity of the issue. Feedback from brokers highlighted that they would like to offer more help and support by having conversations explaining the balance between fraud and theft. This is something that Allianz will act upon to ensure we are providing brokers with adequate support so that they can have these discussions."
In attendance at the round table were representatives from data and fraud prevention specialists, Synectics Solutions.
Chris Hallett, insurance product manager at Synectics Solutions, said:
"Plant hire theft is on the increase and becoming more organised with compromised genuine company information being used to open Plant Hire accounts with the specific intention of stealing volumes of hire machinery.
"We were pleased to support the roundtable event and highlight how our SIRA fraud detection and prevention solution is currently helping insurers, motor finance providers and the vehicle rental sector in the fight against fraud.
"The syndication of data to drive intelligence insights across multiple business sectors is key to stopping fraudsters and tackling this new trend of plant hire theft."
Chris continued: "SIRA is an ideal platform to help plant hire companies in this respect by helping them to leverage both the National SIRA data base as well as offering them the opportunity to link to a whole raft of other third party intelligence sources to stop this type of fraud from impacting their business."
Steve Kelly added: "It is really important that as an industry we are committed to work together in collaboration with all counterparts to combat this emerging fraud."
For further information on plant hire theft, read our insight feature:
The information contained in this press release relates to Allianz Insurance plc. Allianz Insurance plc is one of the largest general insurers in the UK and part of the Allianz Group.
About Allianz Holdings plc
Allianz Holdings plc is the non-regulated holding company which owns the principal insurance operations of Allianz SE in Great Britain.
About Allianz
The Allianz Group is one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers with more than 100 million* private and corporate customers in more than 70 countries. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing 790 billion euros on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage 1.7 trillion euros of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we are amongst the leaders in the insurance industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2021, over 150,000 employees achieved total revenues of 148.5 billion euros and an operating profit of 13.4 billion euros for the group.
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Email: charlotte.stretton@allianz.co.uk
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