Insurers detected fraudulent claims worth £1.34 billion ($2.55 billion) in the UK last year, up 14% on the previous year, an industry peak body says.

By number, detected fraudulent claims fell 3% to 93,900 cases, according to the Association of British Insurers.

The figures point to fewer but more costly cases, and a shift towards higher-severity, more sophisticated fraud, ABI says.

Each claim was worth on average £14,300 ($27,200).

“On average, more than 250 fraudulent insurance claims are detected each day, and this is unfortunately likely to be just the tip of the iceberg,” detective chief inspector and head of City of London Police’s insurance fraud enforcement department Simon Klust said.

“It is therefore important for collaboration across law enforcement and industry to further deepen, to help ... bring offenders to justice.”

In one case, a fraudster who submitted false home insurance claims for stolen Lego sets was sentenced to 28 months in jail. Another was caught running a “crash for cash” motor claim con.

Investigators also uncovered a £300,000 ($570,000) travel insurance scam involving multiple fake identities and fabricated documents to support bogus medical emergency claims.

Exaggerated loss remains the most common type of fraud, with 26,900 cases identified.

Scams involving fraudsters deliberately creating or staging loss incidents rose 30% to about 5600 cases.

Insurers also prevented fraudulent insurance applications – when information is deliberately misrepresented or withheld to obtain cover or reduce premiums – worth £1.8 billion ($3.42 billion) last year, up 24%.

“Fraudsters are targeting much bigger payouts,” ABI said. “As emerging technologies such as AI become more widely available, fraudsters will continue to look for new ways to exploit them ... making it more important than ever that, as an industry, we continue to work together to detect, prevent and deter fraud across all lines.”

Motor insurance accounted for 55% of all detected cases; 51,900 fraudulent motor claims were worth £625 million ($1.19 billion).

There were 17,700 detected fraudulent property claims, with an average value of £11,400 ($21,700), a record high.

Detected travel claim numbers grew 85% to 4500, while the value increased 16% to £8.6 million ($16.3 million).