A man sentenced to 28 months in prison for filing false home insurance claims involving allegedly stolen Lego sets has been named among the UK’s most high-profile insurance fraudsters of 2025, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
The investigation found that the man had fabricated claims involving high-value Lego collections and other items, including MacBooks, televisions, gaming consoles and fishing equipment. The Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) said collectible Lego sets matching those reported stolen were found displayed in his living room during a search in 2023. Along with his prison sentence, handed down last year, he was ordered to repay the £14,000 he had claimed from Axa Insurance through claims made in 2021 and 2022.
Other prominent cases highlighted by the ABI included a man sentenced to 20 months in prison for manipulating women he met on dating websites into participating in staged car crashes. Another individual received a four-and-a-half-year sentence for submitting more than £300,000 in fraudulent travel medical emergency claims using false identities and documents.
The cases come amid rising financial losses from insurance fraud in the UK. The ABI reported £1.34 billion in fraudulent claims in 2025, a 14% increase from £1.18 billion in 2024. The average value of a fraudulent claim reached £14,300, the second-highest level on record.
However, the number of detected fraudulent claims declined by 2.7% to 93,900 during the year.
Mark Allen, head of fraud and financial crime at the ABI, said: “Although the rate of detected insurance fraud fell slightly last year, our data shows that fraudsters are targeting much bigger payouts.
“As emerging technologies such as AI become more widely available, fraudsters will continue to look for new ways to exploit them.”
Detective Chief Inspector Simon Klust, head of IFED at the City of London Police, said: “Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime and those who commit it increase the cost of premiums for honest customers.”
He added that the 250 cases detected daily by the ABI were “unfortunately likely to be just the tip of the iceberg”.
Motor insurance accounted for 55% of all detected fraudulent claims, making it the largest category. The ABI also identified 26,900 cases of exaggerated losses, in which claimants deliberately inflate the value of their losses beyond their actual worth.
The figures highlight the financial impact of insurance fraud and the continuing challenges insurers face in detecting increasingly costly scams.
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