It only took 24 hours for semi-professional soccer player Gary Burnett to accidentally implicate himself in auto insurance fraud.
Burnett, at the time a striker for the Cheshire-based club Northwich Victoria, filed a £2,000 (about $4060 CAD) claim with
Aviva alleging that he experienced whiplash after a minor car accident at a local McDonald’s parking lot, according to the
Daily Mail. Even though his Mercedes Vito only sustained minimal damages, he told the insurance giant that he endured neck and back injuries that would leave him off the field for four weeks.
One day after the collision, however, he tweeted from his Twitter account: “Nice little trek to Kendal later for footy,” indicating his plans to partake in a nearby soccer match.
He then doubled down on his social media proclamations, and three weeks after the incident, boasted on Twitter that one of his goals eliminated a better ranked team from the runnings for the FA Trophy.
Burnett’s lawyers managed to drop the case, but the courts were still able to charge him with being “fundamentally dishonest,” made evident by the fact that he had “openly publicized his footballing achievements on social media.”
A Wigan County Court judge ordered Burnett, who now plays for Curzon Ashton FC, to pay £11,000 ($22,370 CAD) back to Aviva.
“This case highlights how a minor claim can be seen as an open-goal for fraudsters,” said Dave Lovely, Aviva global claims director. “However, we are determined to tackle these fraudulent claimants and stop them scoring against us and our customers.”
Aviva UK estimates that it received 14,000 deceptive insurance claims in 2014, or 39 per day, costing the insurer about £95 million ($193 million CAD) in the United Kingdom alone.
