Aviva and HF successfully fought a fraudulent claim involving alleged injuries brought by a senior finance professional, listed on his LinkedIn profile as ‘Head of Finance for Reporting & Planning’, and his claim against the insurer was found to be fundamentally dishonest.

The accident occurred on 10 November 2019 with Aviva’s insured reversing out of a parking bay as Mr Rizwan Ahmed’s car was passing. The insured didn’t notice Ahmed’s vehicle and reversed into the side of it. Seven weeks after the event, Mr Ahmed completed an accident report form for his own insurance company confirming that the accident was minor and none of the occupants of the vehicle were injured.

However, Mr Ahmed subsequently made a claim stating that all five occupants of the vehicle – Mr Ahmed, his wife and their three children – had, in fact, been injured.  All five claims were strikingly similar regarding their injury location, duration, and prognosis; so much so that at trial the Judge commented that the medical records were ‘carbon copies’ of each other.

The Judge found that Mr Ahmed and his wife, Mrs Fozia Hussain, were educated and articulate individuals and therefore it was not credible for them to claim that they didn’t know what an accident report form meant by ‘injury’. In fact, a key factor in the case was that Mr Ahmed completed an Accident Report form after the accident confirming there were no injuries while at trial, he tried to convince the Judge that he thought injuries meant only broken bones, cuts, and bruises.

The Judge also noted from the report form that Aviva’s insured only reversed a short distance and the engineering evidence showed only a minor contact, so it was not feasible that the car was travelling in excess of 10mph as claimed by Ahmed – it was more likely to have been less than 5mph.

Head of Claims Counter-fraud at Aviva, Pete Ward said, “We are pleased that in collaboration with HF, our legal advisers, we were able to challenge a blatantly fraudulent claim. We hope the outcome will serve as a message to anyone, regardless of their profession and career, who is considering making a false claim, that Aviva will fight such dishonesty on behalf of all our valued and honest customers.”

Jared Mallinson, Partner & Head of Counter Fraud at HF added, “We are committed to helping our clients fight fraud and challenge the notion that claims from professionals and children are less likely to be fraudulent.  This case shows how important it is for us to fight dishonest claims, whoever makes them.”

Counter Fraud