Increasing numbers of gadget lovers are resorting to insurance fraud in order to have their iPhones upgraded.

Specialist provider Supercover Insurance said claims for iPhones typically spiked by 50 per cent during the month in which a new model was brought out.

The group estimates that around four out of 10 claims made during this period are fraudulent, with people deliberately damaging their phone in order to have it upgraded to the new model.

Carmi Korine, director of Supercover Insurance, said: “While most customers take out insurance because they value their iPhone, we started to notice increases in claims as new and upgraded iPhones were launched.

“For short periods around new model or upgrade launches, claims for lost, stolen or damaged iPhones go through the roof.

“The issue appears to be that most iPhone owners can only go for so long realising that they’re a generation behind the latest must-have spec before they resort to extreme measures.”

The group said iPhone cover was the fastest growing type of insurance in the gadgets sector, with iPhone owners 60 per cent more likely to take out cover than other mobile phone users.

It said 40 per cent of the claims it received around the introduction of a new model were suspicious, and it ended up rejecting around a quarter of these.

The group, which always asks people to send in their damaged phones, said in some cases it was very easy to spot that claims were not genuine.

In one case, someone claimed they had dropped their phone and it was driven over by a car.

But when the phone was pieced back together by the insurer’s technical team, they could see signs of at least six hammer blows.

The group said: “IPhones, like most mobile phones, are actually very difficult to damage.

“Very badly damaged iPhones draw attention because they turn up in a state that even being driven over by a car or dropped from a tall building will fail to achieve.”