Claimant denied cover for 'deliberate' late-night crash

A driver who wrecked his car in a single vehicle accident has lost his appeal to overturn his insurer’s decision to deny his claim.

The motor vehicle policyholder crashed his 2014 Chrysler 300 sedan as he returned home from a friend’s house sometime after 3am. The complainant said the weather had been wet when he lost control of his vehicle after taking a turn and colliding with a tree.

The driver attempted to call his friend, but the person did not answer; he then contacted a tow truck service that drove him home. The following day, he called his insurer to report the accident but did not contact the police despite sustaining minor injuries.

Suncorp denied his claim, saying he failed to prove that the damage came from an event that was an unintended accident.

The man’s policy insured the vehicle for an agreed value of $25,400 and covered damage associated with accidental loss or an unintended incident.

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) said the onus was on the complainant to prove that the claim fell within the terms of the policy and that the driver’s account had flaws.

An insurer-appointed forensic expert raised inconsistencies with the complainant’s version of events, saying crash data showed the man took unusual actions prior to the collision.

The expert identified that the accelerator had been depressed three seconds before the crash and that the vehicle had been gradually steering to the left rather than a sudden swerve as claimed by the driver. The report also found that both seat belts were being used at the time of the accident.

The complainant explained that he had kept a valuable hookah in the front seat, which he secured with the seatbelt, but did not respond to the other findings in the report.

AFCA said further inconsistencies with the complainant’s story indicated a potential financial motive for the crash.

The man provided different amounts for the vehicle’s purchase price, ranging between $19,000 to $23,000. When he registered the car, he wrote the sale price at $7000 despite no documentation to confirm the price.

The complainant said that $7000 was the purchase price and that the remaining amount was to pay his friend to replace the engine, which he did not inform his insurer of.

Further enquiries found that the vehicle engine number was the same as the manufacturer’s model and revealed no evidence that the engine had been replaced.

The vehicle’s retail value was $18,400. However, the complainant’s vehicle had more than 100,000 more km/s than a retail vehicle and had been previously written off.

AFCA said that based on those factors, it was likely that the vehicle had been worth “substantively less” than the agreed value of the policy. The complainant also confirmed that he had already tried to sell the car but could not.

The ruling determined that the complainant had the financial incentive and “sufficient opportunity” to cause the accident deliberately.

It said he failed to show that the crash had been an unintended accident and that Suncorp was entitled to deny the claim based on the available evidence.

Click here for the ruling.