Reporting something that did not happen: what it costs

Who reaches this page, and from which side

Quite different people search for this subject, and Italian law treats them differently, so the useful task is to work out which of them you are before you say or sign anything further.

Some arrive because a loss was genuine but the claim written up afterwards was larger than the loss: a laptop added to a bag that really was taken, a repair estimate padded after a minor collision, a cancelled holiday described with a reason that was not the real reason. They now hold a letter from an insurer asking for clarification, and they cannot tell whether it is a routine query or the start of a criminal matter.

Others made a report in a hurry and for a different reason. A hire car was damaged by a friend, a phone was left in a bar after a long evening, a vehicle was lent to a relative who did not bring it back, and the owner reported it stolen to avoid an argument at home. Days later the object turned up, or the story changed, and the report was still sitting in a police file under the owner's signature.

The reverse situation also exists. You did nothing, yet somebody named you in a report about an event that never took place: a former partner, a business associate, a neighbour in a dispute. You learn of it when officers call you in, when a search is carried out, or when a bank starts asking questions. Your concern is not what you said but how a false statement about you came to be treated as the start of an investigation.

Relatives also land here, often from abroad, after a telephone call telling them that somebody close to them has been summoned. Each of these positions calls for a different opening move, and a move that suits a given position can damage another.

How a report that fell apart changes ordinary life

The criminal case is slow, but its practical effects arrive quickly, and they arrive through other people rather than through a court. An insurer that suspects a false claim usually stops paying immediately, may suspend the whole policy while it looks into the matter, and can decline to renew it. For a driver that means cover disappearing on the vehicle that is needed to get to work. Cancelled policies are noted in shared industry records, and a new insurer will ask about them.

Employers matter next. Any job that requires a clean certificate of the criminal record, or that carries duties with money, stock or customers' property, becomes harder to keep after a summons arrives. Some people tell the employer too soon and are suspended; others tell it too late and lose trust. Banks, landlords and licensing bodies ask similar questions on application forms, and an answer given carelessly at that stage can turn into a further problem.

Travel is affected for people who live abroad. A foreign resident who gave a statement in Italy and then went home may find that the file follows them: letters in a language they do not read, a summons for a date that falls in the middle of a work contract, a question at the border on a later trip. For somebody falsely named in a report, the daily damage is of another kind: a neighbour who stops speaking, a school that has been told something, a workplace where a rumour started. The practical aim in each of these situations is to keep the paperwork in order and to avoid giving any institution a reason to act before the facts have been established.

Decisions for the next few hours

Real forks in the road lie ahead, and each carries a price that is easiest to see before the choice is made.

Whether to take the investigator's call. An insurer's loss adjuster and a police officer sound alike on the telephone but they are not the same. What you tell the adjuster can be passed on, and what you say to an officer is recorded as a statement. Answering immediately feels cooperative, but a statement made before you have seen the documents rests on memory, and memory is the weakest part of any report. Declining politely and asking for the request in writing costs a little goodwill and keeps the ground level.

Whether to correct the report. A person who made an inaccurate report can tell the authority, before being questioned, that it was wrong. Doing so may change how the conduct is viewed, but it also amounts to an admission, and it cannot be taken back. The decision depends on what exactly was false, whether anybody was named, whether anybody has been harmed and whether a claim has been paid. It should be taken after a lawyer has read the report itself, not after you recall what you believe it said.

Whether to repay the insurer. Returning money looks like the obvious step. It can also be read as an acknowledgement of fraud. The manner and timing matter, and a message sent without advice can be quoted back later.

Papers to gather before anybody is called back

A lawyer cannot judge a report without the report. Most people remember its content imperfectly, and the difference between what they remember and what the document says is often where the difficulty sits. Collect the following, in the original form if you have it, and keep the copies somewhere that cannot be reached by the person on the other side of the dispute.

• The report itself, with the stamp or protocol marking that the authority received it, and any later supplement. This fixes exactly what was said and on which date.
• The insurance policy and its general conditions, because the wording of what was covered decides whether a claim could have been honest.
• The claim form and every message exchanged with the insurer, including emails, portal entries and recorded calls if you were told they were being recorded.
• Photographs, repair estimates, invoices and receipts that support the value you claimed, together with anything that contradicts it.
• Telephone records, location history, card statements and booking confirmations that show where you and the object were at the relevant time.
• Names and contact details of people who saw the object, the vehicle or the damage, written down before memories fade.
• Any summons, notice or letter from the police or the prosecutor, with the envelope, because the date of delivery can matter.
• A copy of your passport or identity card and a statement of every address where you have lived since the event.

Questions worth asking the lawyer about a report that did not hold

These are the questions that rarely occur to somebody outside the profession, and the answers shape everything that follows. Ask them at the opening consultation and write the answers down.

• In what capacity am I being heard: as a person with information, as a suspect, or as somebody who made the report?
• Which of the offences in this area is actually being considered, and does the document I received say so or only imply it?
• If I tell the authority that part of my report was inaccurate, what changes, and what can no longer be reversed?
• Does the insurer's separate inquiry share information with the authorities, and can I limit what I give it?
• What happens to the claim money if it has already been paid, and what happens if it has not?
• If somebody was named in my report, does that alter how seriously the matter is treated, and should I contact that person at all?
• If I live abroad, can I answer questions from my own country, or must I attend in person, and what follows if I do not?
• Who will see the file, and how long does a record of this matter stay attached to me?

A lawyer who answers each of these with a confident promise has not read the file. The honest answers are usually conditional, and the conditions are the useful part.

When the vehicle, the policy or the person sits outside Italy

Many of these files have a foreign element that nobody planned. A tourist reports a theft from a hire car and returns home; the policy was bought through an insurer registered in another country; the car carries foreign plates; the person named in the report lives in yet another country. Each link adds delay and each delay adds risk, because Italian authorities send letters on their own schedule and a letter that arrives after you left is still treated as delivered.

Documents are the obvious obstacle. A policy written in another language may need a sworn translation before it can be used here, and a report taken down in Italian may contain a version of your words that you never read. Ask for the translation of anything you are about to sign, and keep your own copy of every page. When the claim was made abroad, the foreign insurer may pass its file to an Italian authority, so answers given to it are not private.

Coordination between lawyers is the practical remedy. If you have counsel in your own country, that lawyer can explain the local position on the insurance claim, while an Italian lawyer deals with the report and the investigation. Both lawyers need to speak early and to agree what you will say to each audience, since a statement to a foreign insurer and a statement to an Italian officer will be compared. Telephone calls between countries should be planned around working hours in both places, and urgent messages sent in writing so that the time of delivery is recorded. Your consulate cannot take sides or choose counsel, but it can confirm identity and help with certified copies.

How the studio handles these files

An instruction begins with a short telephone call or an email in which you describe what happened and which document you hold. The studio does not need the whole story at that stage; it needs to know whether a summons exists, what its date is, and which authority sent it. The call can be held in English. The offices in Rome, Milan and Naples allow a meeting in person where that helps, and urgent matters are taken at any hour.

Formal engagement is in writing. You sign a letter of instruction that sets out the work and the fees, and a power of attorney that lets the lawyer act before the authorities. Documents are sent as clear photographs or PDF files by email, never as screenshots of a conversation alone, and originals stay with you until a lawyer asks for them.

The lawyer then reads the report and the summons, establishes your status in the file, and tells you plainly what is known and what is not. Where the authority has asked for an interview, the studio agrees the date, prepares you for the format and attends. Where a foreign insurer or a foreign counsel is involved, the lawyer writes to them directly and keeps a record of every exchange, so that nothing said in Italy contradicts what is said abroad. The studio does not promise a result, and it tells you when a step would do more harm than good.

What to leave alone

The most expensive errors in these cases are small and quick, and they are usually made out of a wish to put things right. The following are worth avoiding until a lawyer has seen the file.

• Do not write to the insurer to explain or apologise. Whatever you write becomes part of its file, and from there it can reach the authorities.
• Do not contact the person named in the report, or their family, to ask them to drop anything. It looks like pressure even when it is not.
• Do not delete messages, photographs or call logs. Removing material that supports your account is as harmful as removing material that contradicts it, and deletion can be detected.
• Do not sign a statement you cannot read in full, in any language. Ask for a copy and for time.
• Do not post about the matter online or discuss it in group chats. Casual comments are later read as admissions.
• Do not ask a friend to tell the same story. Aligned accounts look rehearsed, and the friend may become exposed to liability of their own.
• Do not move money or assets in a hurry. Transfers made after a claim is questioned can be read as an attempt to hide proceeds.

Words you will meet on the paperwork

The documents will be in Italian, and a few terms carry more weight than a literal translation suggests.

• Denuncia is the report made to the police or the prosecutor by somebody who says an offence took place. It is the document at the centre of these files.
• Simulazione di reato means pretending an offence happened, either by saying so or by staging its traces, so that an investigation begins.
• Calunnia is accusing a named person whom you know to be innocent. It is treated as the heavier case because it harms an outside party.
• Autocalunnia is accusing yourself of an offence you did not commit, sometimes to shield somebody else.
• Truffa is fraud: deceiving somebody so that they hand over property, and it is the label that follows an inflated insurance claim.
• Persona informata sui fatti is a person who knows something and is heard as a source of information. Different rights attach to that status than to the status of a suspect.
• False informazioni al pubblico ministero are untrue statements made to the prosecutor by such a person, and they are an offence in their own right.

If a document uses a term that is not in this list, send it over before you respond to it.