The Fraudulent Claims Principle: The Mental Element

6.1 English law has long recognised ¹ the principle that an insurance claim which is tainted by fraud is forfeit, controversy as to the true juridical basis of the rule notwithstanding ² . Articulating the fundamental ingredients of what amounts to a fraudulent insurance claim is straightforward enough. A claim which is deliberately invented, in whole or in part ³ , is the classic example. It is also now settled, at any level below the Supreme Court, that, as a sub-species of the fraudulent claims rule, the use of a fraudulent device in support of an otherwise valid claim will likewise result in that claim being forfeit ⁴ , albeit that the precise ambit of that principle is still under development ⁵ .