Insurance Fraud

Driver involved in fatal Minibus crash likely to face jail over Insurance fraud

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Mr Cooper a 52 year old keen motorcyclist was killed in July 2013 by Henry Hamilton after Henry turned across his path.  

Mr Hamilton was given a suspended prison sentence for causing death by careless driving. Following the conviction Mr Hamilton then failed to disclose the criminal conviction, points and fine to his insurers even though at one point the renewal was only 10 days after the fatality.

The fraud only came to light after the vehicle Mr Hamilton was travelling in was pulled over by police and the driver was covered under Mr Hamilton’s policy, after they ran further checks they found that Mr Hamilton was disqualified. Mr Hamilton then tried to lie about who the actual policy holder was.

Hamilton pleaded guilty to fraud therefore breaching his suspended sentence.

The case has been adjourned but the judge has informed Hamilton that he is likely to receive a custodial sentence.

Insurance Fraud

Duty of fair presentation replaces duty of disclosure

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From August 2016 the insurance industry will see major changes to the obligation on parties to provide their insurers with relevant information.

Since 2013 the rules for ‘’consumers’’ ( an individual who enters into a contract wholly for the purposes unrelated to the individual’s trade, business or profession) have moved away from the traditional ‘’Duty to disclose’’ to the ‘’Duty of fair presentation.’’ On the 12th August 2016 ‘’Non-Consumers’’ (business related insurance) will follow suit.

innsurance legislation changes

The new legislation is designed to be less onerous on the customer and to place more pressure on the insurer to take more of a lead in the information gathering process. It is hoped that the new guidelines will stop insurers taking a wholly passive approach and then looking to deny cover on the grounds of non-disclosure.

 

Overview of the new legislation:

  •  Move from duty to disclose to duty of fair presentation
  • Commercial Policyholders should disclose every material circumstance that they know or ought to know, if they don’t do this they should give their insurers information that is sufficient to put the insurer on notice that further enquiries may be necessary.
  • It is unreasonable for an insurer to assume that the individual purchasing the insurance has every single material fact to hand and compels an insurer to dig deeper should they need further information.
  • The presentation of the facts to the insurer should give a clear indication of the risk to the Underwriters-this is to prevent submissions that are too brief or to prevent data dumping (where Policyholders bombard the insurer with vast amounts of data that is not relevant).

 

If there is a breach of disclosure:

 

Non-deliberate breach or non-reckless breach:

  •  Claim refused on basis information was available – All premium must be refunded from inception and the policy will be voided.
  • Increase in premium – The insurer could reduce the claim payout by the amount that was under paid at inception for example. If only half the correct premium was paid at inception the insurer may only pay half the claim.
  • Terms changed – An insurer may choose to alter the cover or excesses of a policy and settle the claim under those new terms.

 

Deliberate breach

  • The Insurer can void the policy and keep all of the premium paid but the Insurer must prove that the policy was deliberately misrepresented.

Overall, the new legislation shares the responsibility of the disclosure between Insurer and Insured and falls in line with the Financial conduct authorities’ big push on treating customers fairly. August 2016 will mean that brokers will play are more important role than ever condensing the information from the insured, presenting it in a way that is easy for an Insurer to provide suitable cover with a premium that is reflective of the risk.

Daniel Fosker

Director Quotax

School wins court case following sale of un-roadworthy Minibus

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School wins court case following sale of un-roadworthy Minibus

Monk’s Walk School in Knightsfield purchased a minibus back in January from Fabio Devito but refused to take the vehicle away once they inspected it.

The School took Approved Used Sales Ltd. And the sole director to court which resulted in a fine of £4,600, costs of £1432.80 and victim surcharge of £120.

At first Mr Devito did not take the vehicle and the school contacted Hertfordshire Trading Standards who after appointing an independent motor consultant.

The motor consultant found a number of faults including a major fault with the steering of the vehicle. The accessor found the vehicle in its current condition to provide a significant risk of injury.

In his defence Mr Devito had claimed the MOT station and the appointed mechanic should have found the faults with the vehicle.

The magistrate also said during sentencing ‘’Mr Devito’s attitude was unethical and unacceptable’’

The school were never going to use the vehicle to transport children but were said to be ‘’very pleased with the verdict’’

Cyclists complaint upheld against Police after they fail to investigate Minibus crash with cyclist

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A complaint against Police for failing to investigate a road accident with a cyclist has been upheld.

Cyclist Alexander Gibson suffered severe injuries following the accident on the A87 in April 2013.

At the time statements were taken and Police immediately thought the driver of the Minibus was right and this led to a fight for compensation following the accident. The Chief Inspector called the handling of the incident ‘’completely unacceptable,” and said “we have acknowledged that the investigation into the collision was not wholly satisfactory and have apologised to Mr Gibson.”

Because there were no charges against the driver involved in the incident it led to delays in paying the cyclists compensation. Following accidents Insurers will often dispute claims and wait for the Police report which in some cases can take over a year to be finished.

Community transport charity TRIP raise £5,000 towards new Minibus

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TRIP is based in East Devon and is a charity that provides transport for the local community, they are currently fundraising to replace an ageing minibus. They have a number of different vehicles on their

The minibus they are replacing has done more than 100,000 miles and the organisation are concerned that they may incur expensive repair bills to keep it on the road.

TRIP are asking for local donations and grants to get to the fundraising target of £29,000 and those looking to make a donation should visit the office or call 01404 46529

The newspaper The Herald have also chosen TRIP as their charity of choice at this year’s Honiton Show.

 

Insurance premium Tax to increase by 3.5% from November 1st

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On the 8th July 2015 The Chancellor announced in his budget that the standard rate of insurance premium tax would increase from 6% to 9.5% effective from 1st November 2015

For Travel Insurance, mechanical appliances and certain vehicle insurance the rate would remain at 20%

This will affect the following clients (Please note this is not the complete list of business Quotax places that may be effected):

Taxi Insurance

Minibus Insurance

Short term (Temporary) Minibus Insurance

Coach and Bus Insurance

Commercial Insurance

Fleet Insurance

Private Car Insurance


Basic outline of changes:

 

New Business and Renewal transactions

  • Inception/renewal date before 1 November 2015: 6%
  • Inception/renewal date on or after 1 November 2015: 9.5%

 

Mid Term Adjustments (MTAs) on policies incepted or renewed before 1 November 2015

Refund Premiums (RPs):

  • Effective date of MTAs before 1 November 2015: 6%
  • Effective date of MTAs on or after 1 November 2015: 6%

Additional Premiums (APs):

  • Effective date of MTAs before 1 November 2015: 6%
  • Effective date of MTAs on or after 1 November 2015: 9.5%

 

Uber, Vans and TFL bring London traffic to a standstill

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It doesn’t take long walking or driving around London to realise that London is one huge traffic jam.

TFLs bus lanes, the cycle highway, the increase in number of Private Hire vehicles has made London the most congested city in Europe.

12 years ago Ken Livingstone launched a daily charge on certain vehicles entering the city, currently London traffic speeds are at their lowest since 2003 and very nearly below pre-congestion charge levels.

TFL have launched a £4bn road improvement programme for the next 7 years but the current traffic conditions are set to cause them a headache even with this extra funding.

Following the launch of the congestion charge traffic delays were cut by 26% although since then the delays have worsened.

Road space has decreased in the capital by other projects such as the Cycle Superhighways, a dedicated lane for cyclists that was bitterly opposed by the London Taxi trade. Other losses of road space have been attributed to roadworks, large construction projects. This is said to have reduced capacity by about 30% since 1996.

Bus trips in the capital have increased by a massive 70%, Vans and lorries have increased as consumers order more and more goods online. The number of Vans registered in the UK has increased 57% between 1994 and 2013 and now make more than 1/5th of the morning traffic.

Uber the minicab app has led to an increase of Private hire numbers by 26% and TFL are continuing to issue nearly 1000 more licences a week, this is a concern shared by the London Taxi trade who have been actively protesting at TFLs continued licencing of more vehicles. The Mayor of London is looking at limiting the number of Licences for Private Hire vehicles but this is not likely to happen anytime soon.

London Black Taxi numbers have remained steady for the last 10 years at roughly 22,000.

London’s air quality has continually broken Air quality limits and more traffic produces more pollution especially slow moving traffic.

 

Peterborough School receive minibus donation following start of Travis Perkins Masters

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The start of the Travis Perkins Masters was marked with a donation of a new Variety Club Coach to a local school for children with learning difficulties.

 

Woburn Golf club were the hosts of the Masters tournament and the Minibus donation was kindly donated by Travis Perkins the long term sponsors.

For the last 15 years the sponsors have been associated with the Senior tour and were absolutely delighted to hand over the keys to Heltwate School in Peteborough.

Several top tour players including Colin Montgomerie and two time Senior Major winner, Roger Chapman attended the presentation which took place before the start of the Pro- Am tour.

The Minibus is the 8th to be donated since 2008 and a great turnout of players were present at the ceremony.

The minibus was specially adapted with a hydraulic lift which has made it easier to access the Bus for the children with disabilities.

At Quotax we have specialist insurance schemes that cater for modified minibuses and minibuses that are used for schools and charities.  

Quotax expands their short term/temporary minibus insurance offering

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Quotax have recently expanded our short term minibus scheme to allow cover for short term European Insurance cover.  

“ We have worked tirelessly to expand the range of Minibus Policies we are able to offer, our team are seeing an increase in the number of requests for short term Minibus cover. We have agreed with one of our Insurers to provide a this type of cover for our clients. This short term Minibus scheme has been a huge success and we have extended the policy to allow European Cover for certain uses”  Daniel Fosker, Sales Director Quotax Insurance

Please give our team a call if you require short term cover on a Minibus, our rates are very competitive for Charities, Not for Profit and most Social Domestic and Pleasure uses.

Donated Minibus

Special Needs school receives generous Minibus donation

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Rigby Hall school in Bromsgrove has recently been given a 50th Variety Club Sunshine Minibus from insolvency firm Poppleton & Appleby.

Poppleton and Applyby gifted the minibus to the school in celebration of their partnership with the Variety Club Golfing Society. The Society aims to improve the lives of disabled and disadvantaged children by donating Sunshine Coaches. The Variety Golf Society has raised around £750,000 a year and presents on average 20 minibuses a year.

Donated Minibus

The dinner was held at Marriott St Pierre Hotel and Country Club in Chepstow, special guests included Strictly come dancing’s Len Goodman and Anton Du Beke captain of the society.

The new minibus has already had its first trip planned before it was even delivered, it was taking a group from the school to a week long holiday in the Lake district.