Fraud Investigation
Fraud example: adjuster intuition scotches a fraudulent injury claim
When a Richmond man racked up his Corvette on the way home from a party, he knew he was in trouble. He was drunk and his driver's licence was under suspension, so if he got caught he would be looking at a fistful of charges.
Panicking, the man and his girlfriend got a ride home. The man convinced his girlfriend to say that she - not her boyfriend - had been driving.
With no witnesses or police, it seemed like a foolproof lie. What's more, with his girlfriend in the driver's seat, the man knew he'd be eligible to make a claim for injuries and wage loss and receive a settlement for his vehicle - an estimated $50,000.
It was a big, luxurious dream but it quickly turned into a nightmare when scientific evidence was brought into action.
The plot started to unravel when a canny ICBC adjuster suspected there were too many things about the story that just didn't ring true.
The adjuster hired an engineering firm to investigate the claim. The firm's engineers collected hair and skin samples from the driver's and passenger's sides of the windshield and sent them to a lab for DNA testing.
The tests confirmed that the samples located in the driver's side were from a male and those from the passenger's side were from a female.
