‘Fronting’ a major fraud issue

Nearly half of young drivers are prepared to have their car falsely insured by a parent as a way of avoiding the high premiums.

A survey of 500 young drivers, carried out by RAC Black Box Car Insurance, found that 47% were prepared to cheat the system by ‘fronting’, despite most knowing it’s against the law.

Nearly six in 10 (57%) young drivers questioned said they knew it was illegal, with the figure far higher in young males (65%) than young females (49%).

Insurance was the biggest barrier to owning a car for 62% of the young drivers surveyed, while just 22% said it was the cost of buying a car and 12% cited day-to-day running costs.

Aside from the illegal practice of fronting, other ways of reducing car insurance costs identified by the young drivers surveyed included opting for a car with smaller engine (60%) and having a telematics ‘black box’ installed to monitor driving behaviour (52%).

A third (34%) said agreeing to restrictions on their driving such as a curfew or limiting mileage was another way to save money on premiums, but only four per cent said they had a policy with a curfew whereas 11% had mileage limitations. The percentage with mileage restrictions rose to 16% among young male drivers.

Mark Godfrey, RAC insurance director, said, ‘It’s worrying to see so many people – both young drivers and by association their parents – who are prepared knowingly to try to cheat the system to get cheaper insurance. It’s important for anyone who has done this to realise that it could result in invalidating the policy for everyone covered by it, not just the young driver concerned. What’s more, it’s illegal activities like this that increase the overall cost of insurance for all young drivers.

‘The fact our research shows more young males are aware of fronting may be because they think their insurance premiums will be higher than young women’s which, of course, is no longer the case since the EU ruling that gender cannot be used in determining premium prices.’