EMERGING

EMERGING MARKETS:
A Review of Business and Legal Issues
Figure 2. Insurance offences committed between 2003-2004 with the division on the subject
matter of offence and the perpetrator
Perpetrator
Type of an offence
(type of insurance)
Number
Sum (thousand
zlotys)
Average sum of
offense (thousand
zlotys)
2003 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004
Motor insurance 2 791 1 700 16 741 15 457 6,0 9,1
Collision coverage 853 896 11 151 14 450 13,1 16,1
Customers of the
Insurance
Companies
Insurance against fire
and other elements
Burglary insurance
49 134 3 188 15 647 65,1 116,8
109 47 8 779 6 188 80,5 131,7
House insurance 29 29 386 538 13,3 18,6
Agricultural insurance 33 106 159 901 4,8 8,5
Other types of insurance 166 284 12 617 10 653 76,0 37,5
Employees
agents
or
Defalcation of insurance 319 150 19 340 4 388 60,6 29,3
other acts 73 82 837 468 11,5 5,7
Total 4 422 3 428 73 198 68 690 16,6 20
Source: An analysis of information concerning disclosed offences in 2004 connected with the
insurance companies` activity – members of the Polish Chamber of Insurance,
Warsaw 2005
Contrary to what one may believe, police statistics do not fully reflect the actual state
of matters. They only reflect certain phenomena, failing to show the “dark number” of crimes
that according to estimates stands at over 66% of the crimes that are not reported to
prosecuting authorities. In the EU, the figure does not exceed 50%.
In the Polish reality, one may notice the absence of forecasts regarding the
development of insurance crime and it may be indirectly linked to the collapse of the system
Page 126 Volume 1, April 2009