IIF probes over 1,000 claims for fraud

MORE than 1,000 suspected fraudulent insurance claims reported to a telephone service have been investigated in the past eight months.

Almost two-thirds of the calls to the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) hotline have been in relation to claims against motor policies.

Of about 3,000 calls to the Insurance Confidential service, which opened last February, two-thirds were made by men. The IIF passes on the allegations to its member companies, who have been probing the cases.

At least one suspected hoax claim has been referred to the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation.

However, there are no statistics yet on the number of claims rejected by insurance companies, arising from calls to the telephone service.

“We are working on those but we have no doubt the savings to customers will far surpass the costs of the campaign,” he said.

The IIF is spending €300,000 on advertising for the service this year but hopes to make a substantial dent in the estimated

€100 million annual cost to insurance companies of paying out on fraudulent or exaggerated claims.

IIF chief executive Michael Kemp said the public will only truly believe the Government is playing its role when new laws have been passed.

The IIF has asked anyone with information about fraudulent or exaggerated claims to contact the hotline at 1890 333333.