trading style industry financial services founded 2003 headquarters southport merseyside england key people gary duggan ceo paymentshield limited products insurance parent towergate underwriting group limited website www.britishinsurance.com british insurance services is an insurance provider based in southport merseyside offering payment protection insurance and home insurance . the company is an online only insurance provider which sells its policies independently of loan providers . 1 it is a subsidiary of towergate underwriting group limited and had gross written premiums of around 12 million as of 2012 . contents 1 history 2 awards 2.1 2011 2.2 2010 2.3 2009 3 references 4 external links history edit the company was set up in 2003 by husband and wife simon and sara burgess under the name burgesses . 2 it changed its name to british insurance in 2005 after gaining permission from the then secretary of state for industry to use the word british in the company title . 1 in 2006 the company was reported to be insuring three sisters from inverness scotland against the possibility of a virgin birth . it had provided a 1 million policy to cover the cost of child raising in the event of one of them giving birth to the second coming of christ . 3 the company told bbc news online that it had been donating the premiums of 100 per year to charity . it withdrew the policy in 2006 following complaints ; burgess said that the catholic church was up in arms about what we ve been doing . 3 the company also insured a football fan for 1 million against suffering severe mental trauma if england were knocked out of the 2006 world cup prematurely . 4 british insurance was acquired by towergate in 2008 for an estimated 25 million . 2 existing staff including the founders were retained as part of the deal . 5 simon burgess continued as managing director until 2010 . following his departure nel mooy was appointed as managing director . 6 in 2013 the business was transferred within the towergate group and is now a trading style of southport based income protection and household insurance provider paymentshield limited . awards edit the company s awards include 2011 edit the money awards outstanding achievement award . 7 2010 edit personal finance outstanding online insurance provider . 8 mortgage finance gazette best overall insurance provider and ambassador award 9 2009 edit mortgage finance gazette excellence in treating customers fairly financial service product provider category 10 investment international best mortgage payment protection insurance provider 11 what mortgage best online insurance provider 12 investment international best overall insurance provider 9 global business excellence outstanding consumer champion simon burgess 13 references edit a b about us . british insurance services . retrieved 30 june 2010 . a b milner leah 26 august 2009 . simon and sara burgess to set up provider . money marketing . retrieved 30 jun 2010 . a b sisters lose second coming cover . bbc news online . 22 june 2006 . retrieved 30 june 2010 . cup fan s 1m trauma insurance . bbc news online . 3 may 2006 . retrieved 29 june 2010 . montia gill 24 january 2008 . towergate acquires british insurance . insurance daily . retrieved 30 june 2010 . meeson louise 3 march 2010 . british insurance unveils new md as burgess heads to us . insurance age . retrieved 30 june 2010 . the money awards . retrieved 7 april 2011 . the personal finance awards 2009 results . what mortgage . retrieved 1 july 2010 . a b two more award wins for british insurance . mortgage introducer . 12 november 2008 . retrieved 1 july 2010 . mortgage finance gazette awards 2009 . mortgage finance gazette . retrieved 1 july 2010 . first 2009 award win for british insurance . mortgage introducer . 13 january 2009 . retrieved 1 july 2010 . award nominations 2009 . what mortgage . retrieved 1 july 2010 . global business excellence awards . retrieved 1 july 2010 . external links edit company website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title british insurance services & oldid 714534088 categories insurance companies of the united kingdomfinancial services companies established in 2003companies based in merseysidehidden categories use dmy dates from april 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 10 april 2016 at 10 05 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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