Top insurance fraud claims of 2020

As part of its annual effort to raise awareness of auto insurance fraud, Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) has listed its top five fraudulent claims of 2020.

By the end of November 2020, claim savings totalled over $13 million and nearly a thousand fraud investigations had been closed, MPI said in a release published on its website. However, MPI chief operating officer Curtis Wennberg noted that insurance fraud still cost insurance payers an additional $50 per year.

To bring attention to the issue, MPI has been publishing its list of top insurance fraud cases each year.

“The list is compiled based on the unique circumstances of each fraud, financial savings to the MPI ratepayer, and investigative excellence in unearthing the fraudsters,” Wennberg explained in a statement.

Of the various fraud cases handled by MPI in 2020, here were its top five picks:

• The owner of a new travel trailer claimed that it was stolen from his yard in rural Manitoba. While an investigator found the allegedly stolen trailer burned to the ground some 10km outside the city, footage from a nearby surveillance camera revealed that the trailer was towed by a truck that matched the description of the owner’s own vehicle. It was also discovered that the owner was experiencing financial difficulty, and would not allow investigators to access data from his truck that would reveal its whereabouts the night of the trailer’s alleged theft. The owner later withdrew his claim, saving MPI about $37,000.
   
• A woman who was injured in a crash eventually returned to her job on a part-time basis, but she was entitled to receive MPI’s Income Replacement Indemnity (IRI) entitlement, which is calculated specifically from submitted income tax documentation. But an MPI IRI calculator noted irregularities in a letter and email allegedly coming from an accounting firm, which the woman had submitted. The actual accounting firm later confirmed that the documents submitted by the woman – which had anomalies such as misaligned entries, inconsistent font sizes, incomplete field entries, wrong totals, and the same exact income reported for two straight years – were all fabricated. The woman’s benefits were subsequently terminated, saving MPI and its customers nearly $800,000. MPI is also seeking to recover some $100,000.
   
• The driver claimed that a rabbit suddenly ran in front of his vehicle, which forced him to brake and avoid the animal, later crashing into a light standard. But the driver’s story had irregularities, and investigators noted that the man was experiencing significant financial issues. A download from the vehicle’s Crash Data Recorder showed the vehicle was accelerating at the time of the crash, which contradicted the man’s story that he was braking before he hit the pole. The claim was later denied, saving MPI $31,000.
   
• After surviving a collision, a man claimed that he was unable to do his physically demanding labour job. He soon began receiving Income Replacement payments from MPI. However, an undercover investigator found that the man regularly worked at a Winnipeg retail outlet as a volunteer, assisting customers – the man even served an MPI investigator and several others doing surveillance. When confronted with this information, the man claimed he was not working, but “volunteering” his services. His benefits were later revoked, saving MPI nearly $300,000.
   
• A Winnipeg man claimed that he was too traumatized to drive, or even be a passenger, following his involvement in a crash. He also claimed he could not resume his job as a real estate agent due to his resulting physical injuries, so he began receiving IRI benefits. But an MPI case manager later noticed some irregularities with the man’s case. An investigation was launched, which found that the man had returned to his real estate agent job. The case manager even called the man, who whispered over the phone that he could not speak because he was at the doctor’s office. But the man was actually showing a house to clients at that time, which was confirmed by investigators. The claim was denied, and MPI saved nearly $110,000.