More than 18,400 suspect insurance claims worth a combined £233 million were detected by Aviva last year – a record that includes the first full year of its Direct Line brands after acquiring the company in July 2025. The insurer said fraudsters are shifting tactics, moving away from staged collisions and towards exaggerated claims for vehicle damage, repair costs, credit hire and injury, often using wider cost pressures as justification.
Motor insurance fraud accounts for more than seven in 10 fraudulent claims detected by Aviva’s UK general insurance business excluding Direct Line. The company said it is seeing a growing number of claims supported by AI‑generated images and manipulated documents, particularly in motor insurance, where fraudsters fabricate accident scenes and damage imagery to support false or exaggerated claims. In response, Aviva uses advanced analytics and AI‑enabled tools, supported by human oversight, to stop suspect claims earlier.
“Aviva detected 18,400 suspect claims worth £233m in 2025, a record driven by AI-generated images and ghost broking.”
Professional “enablers” are also increasingly involved in property claims, Aviva said, inflating repair costs, contents values and scopes of work. Beyond claims, the insurer detected more than 105,000 fraudulent insurance applications in 2025, with a growing proportion linked to ghost broking. These scams target younger drivers on social media and messaging platforms, selling invalid or manipulated policies that leave customers unknowingly uninsured.
Pete Ward, head of claims counter fraud at Aviva, said: “Fraud isn’t a victimless crime – it drives up the cost of insurance for everyone. We have a duty to ensure our customers don’t foot the bill for other people’s dishonesty, and we work tirelessly to root out fraud and stop it wherever we find it. We’re seeing fraud become more sophisticated, from exaggerated claims to the use of AI‑generated documents, and we’re continuing to invest in the tools and expertise needed to identify and stop it. By detecting and preventing these claims, we’re helping protect honest customers from the cost of fraud.”