2:05pm UK, Thursday August 14, 2003

Britain's biggest mortgage lender plans to use lie detectors in a bid to weed out fraudulent insurance claims.

HBOS says it is the first insurer to use voice stress analysis technology to try to detect if people are lying when lodging claims under household insurance policies.

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Other firms already use it on motor insurance claims.

The group, made up of Halifax and Bank of Scotland, plans to begin using the technology this September for a three month trial period.

No fear

"It won't be used in isolation. Policyholders with honest claims have nothing to fear from it", an HBOS spokesman said.

The technology will only be used on a few hundred HBOS claimants to see how effective it is, and customers will be informed if they are part of the trial.

The group already uses a range of techniques to detect fraud.

Stress analysis

These include sharing information, looking at people's claims history and checking claims for weather damage against Met Office data.

Fraud on motor and household insurance costs the industry more than £1bn a year.

Lloyd's of London syndicate Highway Insurance has been using voice stress analysis technology to detect fraud on motor insurance claims for more than a year.