A massive public liability insurance fraud in the North which has left victims with a potential uninsured risk of £1 billion is being investigated by the PSNI, it was revealed today.
Some 1,400 small businesses, organisations and individuals may have fallen prey to the fraud, the PSNI said.
The Serious Fraud Office, supported by the PSNI Fraud Unit, has begun a criminal investigation into the fraud. Police inquiries indicate at this stage that as much as £3.5 million in premiums could have been lost.
Detective Chief Inspector Larry Cheshire, of the PSNI, said that equated to a potential uninsured risk of almost £1 billion.
Police investigators have already searched the offices and home of one insurance broker in Northern Ireland and a serious of associated searches of eight insurance brokers was being conducted by the SFO in South Yorkshire and Leicestershire today, he said.
Mr Cheshire said there had been no arrests to date but that the fraud was widespread and business people in the province needed to be made aware of it.
"This has a huge potential to impact heavily on the economy of Northern Ireland, which is why we are taking it so seriously."
He said industry insiders warned it had "the potential to be the biggest insurance fraud to hit the industry in the UK in 20 years".
He stressed that insurance companies themselves were uninvolved but appeared to have been "duped" by rogue brokers.
He said: "It is entirely possible that some business people throughout Northern Ireland are not insured for public or employee liability, even though they have paid premiums and in some instances have even received an insurance certificate."
PA