Insurance fraud is emerging as a major issue in earthquake-ravaged Christchurch as some property owners try to take advantage of the disaster.
Police are already dealing with several cases from the top end where people are accused of false or inflated claims to the taxpayer-funded Earthquake Commission (EQC), as well as one where a private insurer paid out $1.5 million to an alleged fraud-ster.
"I suspect we will get quite a few more," said Detective Senior Sergeant John Rae, who heads the Christchurch police fraud squad.
"This is all new ground to us, but a paper done on overseas earthquakes has suggested that one in 10 claims has got some fraudulent element to it. Obviously that goes from someone adding a nought to a figure, right up to the [most] serious stuff."
An EQC spokesman said that since October, additional inquiries it had made into dubious claims had resulted in nearly $1.1 million worth of "incorrect entitlements" not being paid out.
