Relationship between Criminal Law and Operational Search

Activities in Detection, Investigation and Prevention of Motor

Insurance Frauds

Oleg Pavlovich Gribunov

, Ekaterina Anatolyevna Malykhina

Anatoly Vasilievich Malykhin

and Sergey Igorevich Usachev

Baikal State University, st. Lenina, 11, Irkutsk, Russia

Federal State Treasury Educational Institution of Higher Education East Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal

Affairs of the Russian Federation, Irkutsk, Russian Federation

Keywords: Criminal law, operational search activities, motor insurance fraud, criminal law legislation, compulsory third

party motor liability insurance, ways of committing motor insurance fraud.

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Abstract: The article reveals the features of the operational search activities in the detection, investigation and

prevention of motor insurance frauds, which were identified in the analysis of the forensic practice in cases

of this category. The goal of the research is to establish the significance of conducting operational search

activities in the context of the prevention and detection of motor insurance frauds, as well as to identify the

close relationship between criminal intelligence activities and criminal law. The methodological basis of the

work is based on general scientific methods, the dialectical method of cognition, as well as private scientific

methods. The research showed that crime detection is inextricably affiliated with knowledge and analysis of

the criminal characteristics of motor insurance fraud. This information makes it possible to establish the main

elements of the unlawful act and, above all, to formulate the circumstance in proof. It is the knowledge of the

criminal law characteristics that helps to determine the further vector of development and specification the

nature of the activities of law enforcement agencies in countering this category of crimes. Furthermore, the

norms of criminal law allow to determine the structure of the crime committed, and such information is needed

by operational officers for the effective detection and investigation of motor insurance fraud. The indivisibility

of operational search activities and criminal law is also determined by the need to ensure the rights and

freedoms of individuals and citizens, and, notoriously, it is a criminal law that regulates the observance of the

rights of specific individuals, whose interests may be violated in the implementation of the CIA.

1 INTRODUCTION

The fight against crime on the territory of the Russian

Federation is a state priority. At the same time, in the

conditions of current social and economic

development of society, this activity becomes more

and more difficult if additional resources are not used

to achieve the objectives of criminal prosecution and

legal proceedings in general (Popova I.P., Protasevich

A.A. and Smirnova I.G., 2017). Fraud is one of the

major types of crime in the country. The number of

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criminal acts committed in the form of fraud is

constantly increasing, only in the period of 2020 it

increased by 20.4%.

It should be noted that quite a large number of

crimes qualified as fraud is committed in the

insurance industry. Currently, the crime produced on

the insurance market is characterized by a wide range

of different crimes encroaching on a variety of objects

(Hasanov A.M., 2015). Anti-fraud methods are

developed and implemented in many states. Thus,

these issues are studied in the works of various

Gribunov, O., Malykhina, E., Malykhin, A. and Usachev, S.

Relationship between Criminal Law and Operational Search Activities in Detection, Investigation and Prevention of Motor Insurance Frauds.

DOI: 10.5220/0010637300003152

In Proceedings of the VII International Scientiﬁc-Practical Conference “Criminal Law and Operative Search Activities: Problems of Legislation, Science and Practice” (CLOSA 2021), pages

335-339

ISBN: 978-989-758-532-6; ISSN: 2184-9854

335

foreign scientists (Alfejeva J., 2012; Kuller J., 2011;

Hymes L., 2014; Lichtor J., 2002).

At the same time, we cannot fail, either, to

mention the fair remark of the Minister of Internal

Affairs of the Russian Federation V.A. Kolokoltsev

at an expanded meeting of the board of the Ministry

of Internal Affairs of Russia, held on March 3, 2021,

concerning the lack of efforts in relation to counteract

economic crime, including fraud, since the set of

measures being implemented does not really

correspond to the scale of criminal manifestations in

the economy and the capacities of the units of the

Ministry of Internal Affairs responsible for the

combating them.

Among the many different types of fraud, we

consider it appropriate to focus on one of them: motor

insurance fraud. It is an entire cluster of criminal

activity that requires careful study and analysis.

According to the official data of the Autostat

analytical agency, as of January 1, 2021, 45 million

cars are registered in the territory of the Russian

Federation, while cars account for 76% of all

vehicles. There are no official statistics on motor

insurance fraud, however, an analysis of statistical

data on fraudulent actions committed in the country

under Articles 159-159.6 of the Criminal Code of the

Russian Federation showed that in the period of 2020,

more than half of all registered crimes (55.3%) are

theft of other people's property, among which fraud

amounts to 335.6 thousand (+30.5%), while it should

be noted that there is a continuous increase in such

crimes. Thus, in the reporting period of 2018, there

were 215,036 recorded crimes, 257,187 in the period

of 2019 and 335,631 in the reporting period of 2020.

The motor insurance market is one of the

country’s problem sectors (Shanikhina N.N.,

Okuneva A.A., 2018). Certainly, the modern world

market is organized in such a way that fraud

prevention is a kind of guarantee of the financial

system stability (Skipin D., Sakhno Y., Badenova L.

and Kuznetsov M., 2019). In this regard, it is obvious

that the detection, investigation and prevention of the

designated crimes require special efforts from law

enforcement officers, in particular from operational

units, because it is their activity that is an affiliate

with the detection of crimes, which is a rather

complicated process in relation to motor insurance

fraud, in view of the fact that that criminal schemes

are extremely difficult to recognize.

Speaking of the importance of operational search

activities for the crimes under consideration, its close

relationship with criminal law cannot be ignored,

since it is obvious that the disclosure of crimes is

inextricably linked with knowledge and analysis of

the criminal legal characteristics of motor insurance

fraud. This information will make it possible to

establish the main elements of the unlawful act and,

above all, to formulate the circumstance in proof. It is

the knowledge of the criminal law characteristics that

will help to determine the further vector of

development and to specify the nature of the activities

of law enforcement agencies in countering this

category of crimes. Furthermore, the norms of

criminal law allow to determine the nature of the

crime committed, and such information is necessary

for operational officers both when drawing up and

modeling a plan of operational search measures

necessary for the effective detection and investigation

of motor insurance fraud. The indivisibility of

operational search activities and criminal law is also

determined by the need to ensure the rights and

freedoms of individuals and citizens, and,

notoriously, it is a criminal law that regulates the

observance of the rights of specific individuals,

whose interests may be violated in the

implementation of the CIA. In this regard, we

consider it appropriate to agree with the statement,

that without the existence of criminal law, the

provisions of the Federal Law "On Operational

Search Activities" are not viable in a legal state

(Pleshakov A.M. and Shkabin G.S., 2019).

Thus, in this study, we attempted to establish such

a significant intersectoral connection between

criminal law and operational search activities in the

detection, investigation and prevention of motor

insurance fraud.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this research, general scientific methods such as

comparison and modeling were used. In addition, the

specificity, comprehensiveness and objectivity of the

applied dialectical method of cognition played a

special role in solving the set goals of this article.

The relevance and reliability of the conclusions

became possible due to the use of a whole range of

methods: statistical, comparative legal, sociological,

as well as a set of private scientific methods such as

surveys, questionnaires, interviews, collection,

analysis and study of forensic practice, regulatory

legal acts, literary and Internet sources covering

various issues of the relationship between operational

search activities and criminal law in the context of the

detection, investigation and prevention of motor

insurance fraud.

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ACTIVITIES: PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION, SCIENCE AND PRACTICE”

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3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Currently, there are significant gaps in the detection,

investigation and prevention of motor insurance

fraud, as evidenced by judicial and investigative

practice. This state of affairs is due to the high level

of organized criminal activity, the wide range of

persons involved and the complexity of the criminal

activity schemes. Thus, the quantitative indicator of

organized groups or criminal associations increased

almost sevenfold (Teunaev A.S.-U., 2019). In

addition, it should be borne in mind that car insurance

fraud in one way or another related to various sectors

of the economy, the financial and credit sector, etc.,

which require special skills and abilities from

employees of operational units.

The purpose of motor insurance is to provide

services for the implementation of insurance

coverage to a motor vehicle insurer for a certain cost,

which is a profit for the insurance company. At the

same time, experience shows that car insurance is

based on money turnover, which creates the basis for

criminal activity, the essence of which is to obtain the

insurance company’s money by fraudulent means. In

other words, the criminals are aimed at illegally

obtaining insurance payments from the insurance

company. Such criminal activity in this insurance

area falls under the provisions of the criminal law and

is subject to criminal legal qualifications as motor

insurance fraud and provides for the imposition of

sanctions for its committing. The emerging complex

of objective and subjective factors contributed to the

creation of conditions for the emergence of fraudulent

schemes (Ermolaev E. and Zavyalov Yu., 2020). In

this regard, Federal Law No. 207 dated November 29,

2012 established criminal liability under Article

159.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,

which regulates the onset of criminal liability for

insurance fraud, which, according to the current

criminal law, means theft of another’s property by

deception regarding the occurrence of an insurance

event, as well as the amount of insurance

compensation to be paid in accordance with the law

or a contract to the policyholder or other person.

An analysis of the motor insurance industry

showed that thousands of accidents occur every day

on the territory of the Russian Federation, for which

insurance must be paid. Compulsory motor third

party liability insurance is the main type of motor

insurance in the country market, and damage caused

by accident, arson, theft, etc. is not always fully

compensated by insurance companies, which gives

rise to complaints from policyholders. In addition,

corrupt practices by law enforcement officials,

insurance companies and other persons, such as

conducting independent examinations, are not

uncommon. Currently, there is a wide variety of ways

of committing the crimes under consideration

(Bogma K.A., 2019), while fraud in cases involving

vehicles clearly characterized by deception and abuse

(Kuznetsov A.A., 2017).

Thus, in recent years, in the practice of detecting

these frauds, there are more and more cases when an

ordinary traffic accident is registered by traffic police

officers who are members of a criminal conspiracy to

fake traffic police officers in order to obscure the

traces of a crime, which complicates the process of

conducting a preliminary check.

As has developed in practice, the following should

be attributed to the number of sources of receipt of

operatively significant information on the facts of

motor insurance fraud:

data from individuals involved in the auto

business, such as resellers, service station employees,

owners of auto parts stores, car washes, car alarm

installation services, etc.;

 expert opinions on the assessment of damaged

vehicles with signs of fictitiousness;

 information from internal security units of the

Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian

Federation on the facts of involvement in

criminal activities of police officers;

 information on confidential persons, auxiliary

apparatus, volunteers, vigilantes, etc.;

 information from subdivisions of the Ministry

of Emergency Situations of the Russian

Federation based on the results of reviewing

materials and conducting research on the facts

of arson of cars with signs of fictitiousness and

staging;

 information from the owners of vehicles under

contracts with signs of fictitiousness,

overstating the value of a vehicle, etc.;

 information from the materials of criminal

cases, preschool educational institutions on the

facts of hijacking, theft, deliberate damage and

destruction of property with signs of "setup",

fictitiousness, staging of committed illegal

acts.

At this stage, the role of operational search

activities is sharply increased, with their invaluable

potential for transparent and covert operational search

activities to be carried out when criminal activities of

fraudsters are detected. At the same time, it is

important to remember that this activity must meet

the existing requirements of the criminal law and be

closely related to it.

Relationship between Criminal Law and Operational Search Activities in Detection, Investigation and Prevention of Motor Insurance Frauds

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Any crime has an information trail when the

information is recorded in accordance with objective

patterns on material objects, items, substances,

human memory, etc. When detecting crimes, the

operative officer shall take measures to reconstruct

the events, facts or phenomena for use in combating

crime.

There is a specificity in the verification of reports

or detection of motor insurance fraud due to the fact

that the fraud itself is replaced by another action and

is based on knowingly false information on road

traffic vehicle accident, theft, arson, deliberate

destruction or damage of a vehicle, etc. Therefore, the

operational officer must solve a very difficult task of

thoroughly checking and comparing facts, events and

conditions, to understand their reliability, or to reveal

signs of fictitiousness and deceit of an insured event

through operational search measures and

investigative actions. The evolution of modern legal

science is influenced by a number of universal trends

predetermined by general laws for the development

of scientific knowledge (Vardanyan, A.V., 2016), for

example, modern criminal and operational search

legislation are closely related (Vardanyan A.V.,

2018). At the same time, the norms of criminal law

may be fully implemented within the operational

search activities only in forms of compliance or use.

We would like to point out that compliance, as a form

of implementation of criminal law norms, is typical

for almost any type of operational search activity.

This takes place within the positive legal relationships

and consists in the fact that the criminal law

establishes the boundaries that are observed by

persons carrying out operational search activities.

Thus, criminal legislation can and should influence

the social relations between subjects and objects of

operational search activities, be their regulator,

therefore, criminal law has a fundamental place

among the sources of law of the CIA.

In addition, it should be noted that parts 3-5 of Art.

15 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

reveal the signs of crime categories. Without their

knowledge, the operational officer cannot decide

whether it is possible or impossible to carry out

separate operational search activities. It is obvious

that in order to determine the correct tactics for the

detection of motor insurance fraud, the operative

officer needs to obtain information from various

sources (Ovchinnikov Y.G., 2008).

The studied materials of forensic practice indicate

that most of the information received on the

preparation, perpetration or outright illegal motor

insurance fraud consists of reports and signals from

the security services of insurance companies. This

makes it necessary to properly organize the

interaction of law enforcement agencies with

representatives of the security services of insurance

companies, while remaining within the scope of

criminal legislation.

The primary information received from the

previously mentioned sources of operatively

significant information should be verified, correlated,

evaluated and used for its intended purpose.

Experience has shown that, this procedure is preceded

by a set of measures to identify signs of criminal

activity.

4 CONCLUSION

Certainly, fraud in Russia should be considered not as

local manifestations of latent relations between

representatives of government, society and business,

but as a basic system-forming institution of its

economy (Lomsadze D. and Udovichenko A., 2018).

The process of detecting, investigating and

preventing such crimes is extremely complex and

requires special skills and abilities from law

enforcement officers. It is obvious that in order to

ensure a high level of counteracting fraud that meets

modern requirements, it is necessary to use only the

latest approaches and technologies (V. Krutikov, S.

Arakelyan, T. Dorozhkina, S. Volkhin, 2019).

However, we should bear in mind that the adoption of

operational approaches to detection is often closely

bordering on the violation of human and civil rights

and freedoms, which necessitates the constant strict

observance of the norms and limits of the current

legislation.

It should be remembered that the purpose of

operational search activities is to protect public

relations from criminal attacks, which coincides with

the protective task of criminal legislation (Shkabin

G.S., 2017). Sources of operatively significant

information on motor insurance fraud are public and

private, and it is important to understand that the

information received must be implemented strictly in

accordance with the current operational search and

criminal procedural legislation in accordance with

Art. 144 and 145 of the Code of Criminal Code of the

Russian Federation. The main source of operatively

significant information about the prepared,

perpetuated or committed motor insurance fraud is

information and data received from the established

cooperation of representatives of the security services

of insurance companies, regardless of the stage of

commission of the crime. The efficiency of detecting

and disclosing motor insurance fraud directly

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depends on the level of cooperation established

between the operational units and representatives of

the security services of insurance companies,

investigative authorities (Khalikov A.N., 2006), as

well as on the situationally determined optimal and

tactically verified sequence of actions (Belyakov D

Yu., 2007).

In summary, it is clear that the activities of the

operational units play a significant role in the

detection, investigation and prevention of motor

insurance fraud. It is the operative officers who are

subject to search, collect and analyse initial

information on the characteristics of the considered

unlawful acts. In this regard, it is important to

remember that strict compliance of the norms and

requirements of the current legislation has a direct

impact on the outcome of all the professional

activities of operational units aimed at protecting life,

health, human and civil rights and freedoms, to ensure

the security of society and the State against criminal

offences.

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