A collaborative task force of National Insurance Commission (NIC) and the Ghana Police Serve have succeeded in bringing to book some unscrupulous insurance dealers by ensuring that these dishonest persons are dealt with accordingly by the law.
Early this year, the NIC together with the police apprehended two persons for selling fake insurance stickers to credulous members of the general public. These insurance fraudsters were convicted at a Kumasi Circuit court.
The verdict follows a series of investigations conducted by the Police with evidence of them being guilty after the task force picked up these unscrupulous persons upon receiving hints of their undertakings of deceiving a lot of unsuspecting persons to purchase false motor insurance.
At the end of the trial, the convicts, Mavis Nyarko and Baafi Kwasi Appiah who were both Kumasi-based insurance agents were, sentenced to pay a fine of six thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢6,000) each or in default serve a two-year jail term.
Additionally, the NIC has opined that its outfit will make sure that the two convicts are blacklisted from transacting any form of insurance business.
There are currently other suspects facing trial in various courts in Kumasi and other parts of the country for similar offences with the view to flushing out these criminals from the system.
Commenting on the conviction, the Commissioner of Insurance, Dr. Justice Ofori cautioned the members of the general public to remain meticulous in their dealings with individuals and businesses providing insurance services, adding that “in their own interest and in the interest of innocent third parties, expect to receive SMS alerts immediately after purchasing motor insurance from only Insurance Companies in good standing as published in the media and the NIC website” in November 2020.
Going further the insurance commissioner disclosed that the NIC had earlier caused the arrest of some perpetrators of this crime and the culprits are still under investigation.
The Motor Insurance Database (MID)
In a bid to curb the proliferation of fake motor insurance stickers, the NIC, implemented a Motor Insurance Database in December 2019. In spite of the introduction of the Motor Insurance Database (MID) which issues electronic stickers from the NIC replacing the old system of issuing manual motor insurance stickers upon renewal or purchase of new motor insurance policies, this has not deterred certain fraudsters from carrying out their activities.
Certain unscrupulous persons have still devised various fictitious schemes of perpetrating this crime to the detriment of unsuspecting members of the general public.
The Commissioner whined that the reality only dawns on these motorists/patrons when they get involved in accidents and innocent third-party victims of such accidents suffer lack of compensation.
This has translated into huge losses to the state. It is estimated that the insurance sector lost at least GH¢325 million to fraudsters and fake insurance operatives in 2018 alone. This figure is expected to keep rising as the years go by hence the introduction of the MID to nip this phenomenon in the bud.
The MID is expected to significantly improve the volume of written premiums and claims payment in the motor insurance industry.
