One in four British motorists lie to their insurers to cut costs according to price comparison site, insurance.co.uk.

One in 10 motorists claim that their vehicle is parked in a more secure area than it actually is while one in 20 lie about the value of the car, the distances they drive and what their car is used for. 1.5 million motorists admit to lying on their car insurance applications providing inaccurate information about their address and age while over 750,000 motorists lie about penalty points and previous criminal offences in the hope of cutting their premiums. This means that their insurance cover could in fact, be worthless.

Steve Grainger, head of insurance.co.uk warns that “Lying to an insurer is often considered to be a ‘victimless crime’, but this is far from the truth.’
He added that many motorists are unaware that providing inaccurate and insignificant information on the motor insurance applications could affect their cover.

According to price comparison site Uswitch.com, if all motorists provided the correct policies, it would cost a total of £1.05 billion while if those who lied on their application forms had to pay for their insurance claims, it would result in a total of £4.15 billion.

Meanwhile, according to research from Sainsbury’s Car Insurance, in the last 12 months 1.15 million motorists have driven without insurance with 19% admitting that the reason for this was because they couldn’t afford it. A further 19% felt that it was not necessary.