Insurance giant AXA has sent out a message to accident cheats that it will resist claims which it believes to be fraudulent.

In a recent case, the insurer took court action over a relatively small claim of £1,500. Alleging that the claim had been contrived by the claimant, AXA produced several thousand pages of evidence after carrying out a far-reaching investigation.

Interestingly, the investigation included a review of the social networking site Facebook as well as official sources of information.

Although the court criticised the insurer for the volume of evidence presented, it concluded that the claim related to one of a series of ‘staged’ accidents and awarded costs against the claimant.