Car insurance fraud: The role of vehicle repair workshops

This article explores the role of vehicle repair workshops in car insurance fraud and how they might contribute to the reduction or increment of this type of crime, which has been an overlooked research area. The data collection method used was on-site semi-structured interviews through a convenience sample of twenty vehicle repair workshops in Oporto (Portugal). The results revealed that vehicle repair workshops facilitate insurance fraud mainly by cooperating with the vehicles owners and by not reporting their fraudulent attempts and practices to the authorities nor to the insurance company. As one of the actors involved in the dynamics of insurance fraud, vehicle repair workshops have the potential to prevent those crimes.