Insurer Cornish Mutual Rural has insured everything from a flock of camels to a stately home and statues. Read all about it here.

By Charlotte Beugge

Cornish Mutual, the West Country insurer, has opened up its case book and revealed a range of strange and obscure claims. One of the oddest - and most macabre - claims handled by the insurer involved a sunbathing sheep.

The poor animal was surprised by a postal van, leapt through a sitting room window disembowelling itself in the process. It proceeded to die on a Cornish Mutual policyholder's front room carpet, prompting a household insurance claim.

Cornish Mutual, which has around 24,000 members in the West Country, handled more than 5,800 claims in 2010/11 and paid out more than £10 million.

It said that unusual things it has been asked to insure include a Faberge egg collection, false teeth, a helicopter, a family of camels, medical glasses and a bronze statue marking the Cornish rebellion of 1497.

It turned down cover for an enormously valuable porcelain collection and for a bicycle with no lights for day use only. However it did cover a stately home and a village phone box.

Business development manager Philip Wilson at Cornish Mutual, says: "I would like to say that we have seen and heard it all before when it comes to strange requests for insurance cover or the more unusual claims, but now I'm not so sure.

"On a serious note, it is very important to ensure that you have the right type of insurance cover in place for your personal belongings or items of any value, however bizarre or unusual they may be."