12 March, 2026
Allianz UK prevents record level of fraud
Over 34,200 insurance fraud cases, including a ghost broker pocketing more than £133,000, were identified by Allianz UK last year.
The sum of money saved in 2025 by the insurer’s dedicated fraud team totalled nearly1 £174 million – which is equivalent to over 650 fraud cases, recouping £3.3 million every week. In addition, fraud savings were up 10.5% compared to 2024, when Allianz recovered over £157 million.
Fraud trends
With fraudsters continuing to evolve their tactics in many areas of insurance, whether through submitting fake claims or intercepting policies, some of the biggest 20252 fraud trends include:
- 84% rise in staged accidents, where two cars purposefully collide to create a fake accident and claim.
- 61% rise in contrived accidents, where a fraudster crashes into an innocent driver to claim fabricated damage or injury.
- Increase in ballooning of casualty claims, where a claim is submitted for a modest sum, but once accepted is then grossly exaggerated by adding fake additional injuries. For example, Allianz accepted a claim worth £8k, but the claimant then added more injures to the sum of £56k.
- Ghost brokers continue to be a persistent threat, accounting for £15 million in policy fraud, with no signs of it slowing as fraudsters target different communities such as young people looking for cheaper insurance.
Ben Fletcher, Director of Fraud and Financial Crime at Allianz UK, said:
“Insurance fraud is a serious problem that pushes up the cost of policies for honest consumers, but our dedicated team continue the fight through a mix of training, education and tools. Fraudsters are continually changing their tactics and we need to match their efforts with greater speed and agility than ever before. We’re working more closely than ever with a wide range of suppliers, industry organisations and the police to catch the fraudsters, and our 2025 results indicates that our efforts are working.
“We do all we can to protect our genuine customers and businesses against the harm of fraud, and make it a hostile environment for anyone seeking to commit fraud against us. We are resolute in our determination to identify and defend against any type of fraud and use a variety of methods to detect it such as voice analytics and machine learning tools. This work is reflected in some of the convictions we’ve seen in criminal courts and findings of fundamental dishonesty in the civil courts.”
Some of the fraud cases Allianz has tackled in 2025 include:
Ghost broker sentenced to five years
An insurance broker who abused his position of trust to divert payments totalling more than £133,000 into his personal bank account was sentenced to more than five years in prison. His conviction followed an investigation led by the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) with support from Allianz UK.
The broker used his role as an insurance broker to mislead customers, falsify documents, and misdirect payments intended for legitimate insurance policies. His actions left individuals and businesses without valid cover for homes, vehicles, and commercial property - placing them at serious risk.
Noise induced hearing loss
A claimant alleged they’d suffered noise induced hearing loss from previous employment. Not only did the claimant fail to prove their £23k claim, at cross examination, it was shown they had been untruthful to such an extent the claim was struck out and fundamental dishonesty was made against the claimant.
£10m claim from cyclist
Following a relatively modest collision a cyclist tried to grossly exaggerate their claim, suggesting that their injuries were much more severe than they were. Despite claims of ongoing symptoms requiring round the clock care, surveillance undertaken showed the claimant regularly leaving home with no apparent symptoms whatsoever. Medical experts were of the view that this was an extreme case of exaggeration, and no medical condition could explain the inconsistent symptoms displayed.
Notes to Editors
Media contact:
Natasha Gibbs – External Communications Manager
[email protected] / 07385 088 473
1 £173.9 million
2 Allianz UK data comparing 2024 and 2025
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 including Allianz Insurance.
About Allianz
The Allianz Group is one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers serving private and corporate customers in nearly 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 around 761 billion euros* on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage about 1.9 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 among the leaders in the insurance industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2024, over 156,000 employees achieved total business volume of 179.8 billion euros and an operating profit of 16.0 billion euros for the Group.
* As of September 30, 2025.
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This document includes forward-looking statements, such as prospects or expectations, that are based on management's current views and assumptions and subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results, performance figures, or events may differ significantly from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements.
Deviations may arise due to changes in factors including, but not limited to, the following: (i) the general economic and competitive situation in the Allianz’s core business and core markets, (ii) the performance of financial markets (in particular market volatility, liquidity, and credit events), (iii) adverse publicity, regulatory actions or litigation with respect to the Allianz Group, other well-known companies and the financial services industry generally, (iv) the frequency and severity of insured loss events, including those resulting from natural catastrophes, and the development of loss expenses, (v) mortality and morbidity levels and trends, (vi) persistency levels, (vii) the extent of credit defaults, (viii) interest rate levels, (ix) currency exchange rates, most notably the EUR/USD exchange rate, (x) changes in laws and regulations, including tax regulations, (xi) the impact of acquisitions including related integration issues and reorganization measures, and (xii) the general competitive conditions that, in each individual case, apply at a local, regional, national, and/or global level. Many of these changes can be exacerbated by terrorist activities.
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