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This article was published 29/12/2014 (2093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man who torched his brand new truck for no apparent reason claimed the No. 1 spot on the Manitoba Public Insurance’s ‘Top Frauds of 2014’ list.

The Winnipegger admitted to investigators that he was "just mad at the world" after consuming approximately 20 beers at a party and pouring a large amount of gasoline on the front seat of his new truck in front of a number of witnesses. After tossing in a match, the truck exploded, burning the man’s chest and arms.

He would later make up a story about how the truck caught fire. The witnesses eventually came clean to police and MPI investigators, and the man was left with a criminal record, a $2,000 fine, permanent scars and a destroyed vehicle worth approximately $40,000.

Fraudulent claims like this are familiar to MPI’s special investigation unit. The unit looks over around 3,000 claims annually and through the process uncovered approximately $7.5-million in fraud savings for Manitoba auto insurance rate payers.

Rounding out the top five fraud discoveries over the last 12 months: