Insurer Aviva is writing to tens of thousands of motorists, following concerns that two employees sold customers’ details to claims companies.
Hundreds of customers, who recently had accidents, have received calls from firms to persuade them to take personal injury claims, according to BBC News.
Aviva has apologised to those affected and alerted the authorities. The two employees have been dismissed and the police have arrested two people on suspicion of fraud.
Bryan Comley, an Aviva customer who recently had a car accident, is one person who has been on the receiving end of such phone calls.
He was hit by another motorist two years ago. No one was injured in the collision and the claim was settled quickly.
However, he started receiving calls to his mobile shortly afterwards and was told thousands of pounds had been set aside for him as a result of the accident.
He told BBC Radio 4: “I assumed this was normal industry practice – that a car insurance company would disclose this information to third parties. I didn’t know any better.”
Aviva said it was looking into what it needed to do to prevent this from happening again.
