A man who pushed his car off a cliff, and another who tried to claim the money he spent in a brothel as hospital fees incurred after a fictitious heart attack are among a host of bogus insurance claims made in the last year.

Others include an amateur footballer pictured in a local newspaper scooping his club’s Player of the Year title, after telling insurers he was too sick to work.

The Association of British Insurers issued details of the bizarre cases as they revealed more than £1m bogus claims are made every day – around £480 million a year.

The trade association also told that just under one in ten claims are false.

Nick Starling, Director of General Insurance and Health at the ABI, said: “Fraudulent insurance claims cost £1.6 billion, and add £40 a year to the premiums paid by honest customers.

“But the industry is fighting back. Insurance cheats are more likely to be caught than ever before. And cheats will pay a high price as future insurance and credit will be more expensive and harder to obtain.”

Examples of bogus insurance claims include:

• A debt-ridden driver who pushed his car off a cliff and then claimed it had been stolen so he could pay off debts
• A man who claimed ‘recovery expenses’ following a heart attack suffered while on holiday in West Africa, which was for the services of a local brothel
• An amateur footballer who claimed he was unable to work due to a back injury – and was then photographed as his club’s Player of the Year
• And a woman who reported her husband for exaggerating his injuries following a car accident hours after he left her having collected a £385,000 compensation payment

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