Case study — A flood and a dishonest insured

In the wake of the severe flooding event in Auckland on 27 January 2023, an insured dubbed "Mikey" by the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO) (not his real name), made a fraudulent claim. Mikey’s car needed repair to remedy...

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Andrew Horne, Nick Frith (Partners) and Olivia de Pont (Senior Associate) — MinterEllisonRuddWatts New Zealand

11 May 2026

3 mins read

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Case study — A flood and a dishonest insured

In the wake of the severe flooding event in Auckland on 27 January 2023, an insured dubbed “Mikey” by the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO) (not his real name), made a fraudulent claim.

Mikey’s car needed repair to remedy the effects of wear and tear. After the flood, he made a claim upon his insurer for his mechanic’s quoted costs, claiming — falsely — that the repairs were required to remedy flood damage.

Caught out

Unfortunately for Mikey, he was found out. The insurer declared the car a total loss and advised that it would be notifying Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency to deregister it.

Hearing this, the insured asked to withdraw his claim, saying that he did not believe there was internal water damage and that he thought the car, which he needed for work, could be repaired.

At this stage, it would have been open to the insurer to allow Mikey to withdraw the claim, but it smelled a rat and investigated further. The investigation uncovered an obvious discrepancy with the claim.