Auto insurance fraud causes rate increases. (Michigan).

Claims, September, 2002

Officials estimate that approximately half of the stolen car reports made in Detroit turn out to be false, and that fraud costs Michigan motorists millions of dollars a year in higher insurance rates, according to a recent Associated Press story.

Of the nearly 54,000 vehicles reported stolen statewide in 2000, about half being in Detroit, with half of those reports being phony, the AP quoted police, prosecutors, and insurance companies as saying. As a result, Detroit residents pay 50 percent more per year for auto insurance than do other Michigan drivers.

Because of the volume ...