Gang members held over alleged €200k fraud
A single Cork gang is believed to have defrauded insurance companies of up to €200,000 in personal injury claims.
However, the gardaí’s countrywide Operation Nascar, which has been under way for a number of months, has so far led to a total of 17 people being questioned.
Detectives from the Organised Crime Units and Fraud Investigation Unit from Anglesea St Garda Station in Cork arrested two men and a woman in the Midleton area of Co Cork yesterday morning.
At the same time they arrested another man and a woman in the Mallow area.
The operation was also supported by detectives from those areas.
The five, aged in their 20s to 40s, were being detained at Midleton and Cobh Garda Stations under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act (1984).
Senior Garda sources indicated they believe they are members of a gang who have has deliberately staged minor accidents.
“They would contact gardaí after the accident and gardaí would go to the scene and discover only material damage,” said the source.
“They would not note the occurrence of the accident if no offences were committed and there were no injuries. But subsequently people would then go to their doctors and solicitors claiming that they were suffering stiffness or soreness as a result of the accident.”
He said the injured person would then lodge a claim with their insurance company which it would then settle. “We see this as a serious problem,” said the senior source.
Payments by the insurance companies to these people are understood to range from about €10,000 to €15,000.
Sources said this was the third wave of arrests in the operation.
The operation is being carried out in conjunction with the insurance ind-ustry, which is anxious to clamp down on the number of fraudulent claims it settles each year, which are costing companies a considerable amount of money.
As part of the operation five people were arrested in Munster on Feb 6 last. They were released without charge and a file has been sent to the DPP.
Four men and three women were questioned the following month at various Garda stations in Cork and the Midlands.
Those arrested in the Midlands had Cork connections.
Gardaí questioned them in relation to two specific staged accidents, one of which was in North Cork and the other on the outskirts of Cork City.
Two vehicles were involved in both accidents and they each contained several occupants.
The Garda source said that all 17 arrested as part of Operation Nascar “appear interconnected”.
Gardaí believe those involved had substantial knowledge of the insurance claims process.
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