Hologram plan to beat forged cover notes

FORGERS have been having a field day with an item which is just as valuable and a lot less well-protected than the £50 note. There is a market for forged motor insurance cover notes to get cars retaxed fraudulently, or to be produced at police stations ifwrongdoers are stopped and required to produce the requisite documents.

Forged cover notes account for the bulk of motor insurance fraud, which costs the industry and ultimately law-abiding motorists £200m a year, according to the Association of British Insurers, and adds about £14 a year to the cost of insurance for the average driver.

GAN Insurance, formerly National Motor, Malvern and Minster Insurance, now plans to produce cover notes incorporating a number of safety features, including a hologram of the company logo, an ultra-violet light-sensitive image of the logo, a background print in blue security ink, a personalised agency reference for the broker, an expiry date, and a warning message to help police and Post Office counter clerks check the features and identify forged or photocopied cover notes.