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False declaration saves woman $295 in insurance: costs her more than $37,000 when her son has accident
(Copyright Thompson’s World Insurance News. Not to be redistributed by individual recipients.)

A false declaration to the Insurance Corp. of B.C. saved a Penticton, B.C., woman $295 a year in insurance premiums — until her son had an accident in the car.
Now Debra Booth owes ICBC more than $37,000, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Barrow has ruled.
 In 2000 Ms. Booth and her husband jointly leased a 1996 Camaro for their son Brian who was named the principal operator when it was insured.
But he ran into money problems. In May 2003 his mother paid off the balance on the lease, took possession of the car and declared she was the principal operator.
She made the same declaration when renewing the insurance in May 2004.
This saved $295 on the insurance premium.
In September of that year her son was involved in a collision that injured a passenger in the other car.
ICBC defended him and settled with the injured party for $37,660.
It declared Ms. Booth’s policy invalid because her son was in fact the principal driver and demanded repayment.
She went to court seeking a declaration ICBC was obliged to indemnify her.
But the judge ruled he found her evidence she was the principal driver improbable.