£2.3m insurance frauds uncovered every day

Home insurance has become the most common type of cover on which people try to commit fraud, with around 170 bogus claims found each day, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

Typical home insurance frauds involve people trying to claim for alleged accidental damage to carpets or furniture, often caused by spilt drink, when insurers find that the damage was actually caused deliberately.

Motor insurance is also a popular target for fraud, with around 108 dishonest claims uncovered each day, collectively worth 1.1m.

But while insurers are employing a range of increasingly sophisticated techniques to detect fraudulent claims, many policyholders are found out because of their own stupidity.

One man tried to claim on his home insurance policy for the theft of DVDs which he said he had bought locally, but the titles had yet to be released in the Britain

A woman reported her husband for exaggerating the injuries he received in a car accident after he walked out on her when he received a 385,000 payout. He had been pretending to be badly injured for three years.

The ABI's director of general insurance and health, Nick Starling, said: "Insurance cheats do not prosper - they can expect to get caught."