Lego fraudster among last year's most high-profile insurance scammers
The person was sentenced to 28 months in prison after an investigation found the claims were made up, the insurance trade body, the ABI said.
Lego fraudster among last year's most high-profile insurance scammers
A scammer who was jailed for submitting false home insurance claims over allegedly stolen Lego has been named among last year’s most high-profile insurance fraudsters.
The individual received a 28-month prison sentence after an investigation showed the claims were fabricated, according to insurance trade body the ABI.
Other fraud cases highlighted by the ABI included a person who staged car crashes with people they met online, and a complicated travel insurance scam involving several fake identities and documents.
The ABI said the average value of a fraudulent claim rose to £14,300 last year, the second-highest figure ever recorded.
Fraudulent claims totalled £1.34bn in 2025, up 14% from the £1.18bn detected the year before.
At the same time, the number of detected fraudulent claims edged down to 93,900, a 2.7% fall from 2024.
Mark Allen, head of fraud and financial crime at the ABI, said: "Although the rate of detected insurance fraud fell slightly last year, our data shows that fraudsters are targeting much bigger payouts.
"As emerging technologies such as AI become more widely available, fraudsters will continue to look for new ways to exploit them."
Det Ch Insp Simon Klust, head of the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) at the City of London Police, said: "Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime and those who commit it increase the cost of premiums for honest customers."
He added that the 250 cases a day detected by the ABI last year were "unfortunately likely to be just the tip of the iceberg".
One of the most notable fraudsters identified by the ABI last year was a man found by IFED to have invented reports of stolen high-value Lego sets.
The man's scam claims to Axa Insurance during 2021 and 2022 also included other high-value items such as MacBooks, televisions, gaming consoles and fishing equipment, IFED said.
In 2023, IFED said it found collectible Lego sets matching the ones claimed to have been stolen displayed in the man's living room during a search.
Alongside his prison sentence handed down last year, he was also ordered to repay the £14,000 he had claimed.
Other cases highlighted by the ABI included a man jailed for 20 months for manipulating women he met on dating sites into taking part in staged car crashes, and a man sentenced to four and a half years for submitting over £300,000 worth of fraudulent travel medical emergency claims.
Overall, the ABI said motor insurance was still the area where insurers detected the most fraudulent cases, making up 55% of all scam claims.
Meanwhile, the ABI's figures showed that exaggerated loss remains the most common type of insurance fraud, with 26,900 cases identified.
This is when someone deliberately tries to raise the cost of a claim above its true value, the ABI said.