FRAUD: Second city blushes
Birmingham city centre has the highest car insurance premiums in the whole of the UK, according to a study by SmartWitness Incident Cameras.
All of the worst 10 postcodes for car insurance in the UK are in Birmingham and most of these are within a few miles of the city’s notorious ‘Benefits Street’ – James Turner Street.
Insurers say Britain’s second city also has the highest number of bogus whiplash claims, adding £90 to every motorist’s bill.
It was revealed that Birmingham’s motor insurance premiums are now SEVEN times higher than Aberdeen – the UK’s cheapest city for car insurance.
The price of insuring a BMW 3 Series in Bordesley Green, Birmingham B9, is £1,101.62 per year, compared with Aberdeen city centre which comes in at only £157 for the same car.
Overall Birmingham has more than a fifth of the worst 100 postcodes for motor insurance premiums in the country – 22 in total.
The second worst city in the UK for car insurance is Liverpool with 17 of the top 100; East London is third on 13, Manchester fourth with 11, North London fifth with nine; and sixth-worst South East London with seven.
Simon Marsh, Managing Director at SmartWitness, said: “Part of the reason for the sharp increase for the car insurance premiums is that Birmingham has become the capital of whiplash claims in the UK.
“The six top areas for Third Party Injury (TPI) claims are all in Birmingham and it’s no great surprise that those neighbourhoods mirror very closely those with the highest premiums in our survey.
“Over 40% of motor insurance claims are contested but only 2% of SmartWitness claims are, so you can see that having reliable video evidence practically eliminates bogus whiplash claims.”
On-board camera sales have risen by 40% in the last year as more motorists look to protect themselves from whiplash fraudsters.
