Fraudulent insurance claims caught by South Korea's authorities hit a record high in the first half of this year amid a tougher crackdown, data showed Tuesday.

The related authorities caught insurance fraud cases worth 348 billion won ($314 million) during the period, up 12.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service.

The figure marks an all-time high in the biannual statistics.

But the number of scammers caught declined 2.2 percent to 40,054.

The FSS said the increase in the volume of insurance money claimed came as the authorities have stepped up efforts to catch "bold, high-profile and organized" insurance scams such as those involving hospital staff and costly imported cars.

A special law on preventing insurance fraud is scheduled to take effect at the end of this month.

By type, non-life insurance scams accounted for 86.5 percent, or 300.9 billion won, while the remainder were life insurance-related ones.

Insurance money applications involving bogus patients, known here as "nylon patients," who are hospitalized unnecessarily, mostly after car accidents, rose to 50.1 billion won during the January-June period from 32 billion won in 2014 and 43 billion won in 2015. (Yonhap)