FOI 0633-2026/27- Ghost broking

Request:

Clarification

Would it be possible to provide data for 'car insurance fraud' or 'motor insurance fraud' in York?

Original request

Under the Freedom of Information Act I wish to request reports of 'ghost broking' within the city of York, covered by your force.

For clarity, 'Ghost broking' is an illegal insurance scam where fraudsters pose as legitimate brokers to sell fake, invalid, or heavily discounted motor insurance policies.

I would be grateful if you could provide the following information:

Q1. The number of reported cases of ghost broking / fraudulent motor insurance activity recorded by your force for each of the following periods:

Jan 2021 - Dec 2021

Jan 2022 - Dec 2022

Jan 2023 - Dec 2023

Jan 2024 - Dec 2024

Jan 2025 - Dec 2025

Where possible, please provide the figures broken down by calendar year so that year-on-year comparisons can be made.

If available, please also provide the following information:

- Total reported financial loss per year

- Average or median reported financial loss per victim

- Methods used by the fraudster to contact the victim (e.g. social media, text message, telephone, website, email)

Response:

xtent and Result of Searches to Locate Information

To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police.

I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police. 

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the following information to you.

Q1. A search has been conducted for crimes recorded between 01 January 2021 and 31 December 2025 in York, with the following in MO Remarks: “car insurance fraud” or “motor insurance fraud” or “ghost broking” to which there were zero results.

Please note this data was obtained by completing a MO remarks search of the above words. The accuracy and reliability of these searches cannot be guaranteed as only the MO / summary field of the report is searched. If this term is mentioned elsewhere (i.e. within the call log, crime report, statements etc) these will not be returned in the results. Additionally, if the term is misspelt within the MO / summary field, this will not be returned.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.