Bogus insurance claims and staged traffic accidents poison the atmosphere for valid claims as well as tying up gardaí and ambulance services to bolster the frauds, the sentencing judge said yesterday.

A car crash that was deliberately set up for a fraudulent compensation claim did not cause enough damage at first and one car was seen reversing and crashing a second time into another vehicle before gardaí were called to the scene, a court has heard.

Gardaí have charged 16 people with various counts of deception and making false reports in relation to orchestrated traffic accidents.