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Aubrey, the very great majority of whiplash claims are genuine. Johnathan Wheeler of APIL wrote last month:

"In 2012, the Association of British Insurers said that 7 per cent of motor claims were fraudulent. This figure was repeated by the government the following year. Yet the association’s own statistics – which can be purchased for a few hundred pounds – clearly show that the figure includes both proven and what it calls “suspected” fraud, in other words, what is thought to be fraud but cannot be proved as fraud. It has long been the case in our justice system that one is innocent until proved guilty.

"When the ABI separated the two figures in 2014 it became clear that proved fraud (even on its figures) was only 0.25 per cent of all motor claims. That includes policyholders over-egging their own claims or making false declarations in applications for insurance.

"Personal injury fraud is a fraction of that figure, and fraudulent whiplash claims are a fraction of that. Nobody knows for certain the size of the fraction because there are no reliable figures for personal injury fraud.

"A Treasury document published last November said “the government is determined to crack down on the fraud and claims culture”. It went on to say that removing the right to compensation for minor whiplash injuries “will end the cycle in which responsible motorists pay higher premiums to cover false claims by others”.

"Yet it is clear to anyone who can be bothered to study the figures that the proposal to remove compensation for some whiplash injuries, however “minor”, is both draconian and has absolutely no basis in evidence."

Of course a small percentage out of a large number of claims is still a high number of suspected fraudulent claims, and those that work in counter-fraud for insurers must be driven mad by it, seeing apparently nothing but dodgy claims.

But the solution adopted to deal with the 1% (or very possibly less) is to block the genuine claims of the 99%.

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