Insurance fraud costing industry €100m annually

The Irish Insurance Federation has claimed that fraud is costing the industry €100m annually.

The federation made the claim at a press conference in Dublin to announce an agreement with the Gardaí about the handling of investigations into such fraud.

The organisation said fraud was not a victimless crime as the public had to pay for it in the form of higher premiums. It said a hotline it established to allow the public to report cases of fraud had been a bigger success than expected and had received more than 2,000 calls in the past 18 months.

Meanwhile, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy told today’s press conference that organised criminal gangs and subversive groups were involved in insurance fraud.

He said such groups had targeted insurance companies and the Criminal Assets Bureau had recovered more than €1m in such cases.

Mr Conroy also said six people had been convicted of offences relating to insurance fraud over the past two years.

Irish Insurance Federation president Paul Donaldson said a significant number of investigations were due to be completed in the coming months and high-profile prosecutions were likely.