The Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA) Insurance Fraud Bureau is set to move to the next stage of its development with a plan to tackle organised insurance fraud.

GM Policy, Risk and Disaster Planning Karl Sullivan says that by the end of this year the bureau will have an operating model to allow it to begin detecting and pursuing prosecutions for complex organised insurance fraud, rather than just one-off cases.

Mr Sullivan told insuranceNEWS.com.au a recently completed analysis indicates insurance fraud in Australia represents just over $2.2 billion – or around 10% – of all claims.

He says phase one of the Insurance Fraud Bureau’s brief, which included setting up a public hotline to provide tip-offs about fraudulent claims and providing law enforcement with appropriate links to insurance records, has been completed.

“The area where there’s a lot of money going out the door is organised insurance fraud,” Mr Sullivan said. He says fake workplace accidents and staged motor accidents resulting in compulsory third party claims are examples of organised fraud.

The bureau will analyse claims across companies for patterns to detect organised insurance fraud.

But insurance companies must be able to share information for such patterns to be detected, and the bureau is talking with the Privacy Commissioner to get approval for sharing information.

Mr Sullivan says organised insurance fraud is often a means to fund other criminal activities. He hopes that stepping up the bureau’s operations will also deter potential fraudsters.