CRIMINAL OFFENCE OF INSURANCE FRAUD IN COMPARATIVE LEGISLATION

Abstract

Insurance mechanisms were created as a type of economic protection of insured persons who are exposed to the same type of danger in order to jointly bear the damage that would befall some of them, and which they would not be able to bear individually. Although insurance was created to protect people and their property from the consequences of numerous dangers, individuals or groups also use this activity to acquire illegal property benefits, in other words, for criminal activity. The expansion of such behaviors has conditioned the need for a social reaction to these types of criminal activity, not only at the national but also at the international level. The basic principles of the social reaction to insurance fraud are based on preventive action in order to avert their occurrence. However, criminal law also plays a significant role in preventing their occurrence. Having in mind the many specifics of fraud, and consequently, fraud committed in the insurance business, as well as various opportunities for abuse, the criminal law of the surrounding countries, and beyond, in the corpus of illicit and punishable behavior includes fraud of this type in different ways. Some treat insurance fraud as an independent criminal offense, and in some places, it is included in the criminal offense of ordinary fraud. Accordingly, the paper analyzes the criminal offense of insurance fraud in comparative legislation.