Rise in car insurance fronting and other fraud

Individuals named as second drivers on their parents' car insurance policies now have an average age of 31, according to research.

Car insurance specialists at comparison site uSwitch.com also discovered a 30 per cent rise in reported cases of "fronting" – where a young person buys and registers a car in their own name, but tells their insurer a parent is the main driver – and other forms of fraud in the last two years.

Mark Monteiro, uSwitch's insurance expert, points out that fronting is "a serious fraud" and holds potentially severe penalties for anyone who is caught.

"If detected, insurers can refuse to pay out for any claims or can settle a third-party claim and recover the cost from the parent as the policyholder," he notes. "If the insurer declines a claim, the young driver could be treated as uninsured and could be fined heavily and receive six penalty points".

As well as setting drivers up for higher car insurance costs, this could result in an automatic ban.

For anyone finding car insurance affordability an issue, he recommends looking at increasing your excess, downgrading your cover or trading your car in for one in a cheaper insurance class.