Tougher than ever to make false claim says Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland
The Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland says it is tougher than ever to make a false claim.
The Bureau has recently introduced new measures to get tough on fraud.
This included measures to put the full weight of the MIBI’s internal and external resources behind investigating suspicious claims, working hand in hand with the Gardaí to look into these cases as well as legally contesting such claims and bringing them to trial to be scrutinised by the full power of the courts.
MIBI was set up to compensate victims of road accidents caused by uninsured and unidentified vehicles.
The non-profit organisation received fewer claims from 18 of the 26 counties, in the first seven months of the year.
The largest drop in number of claims came from Louth with 34 fewer received by the end of July, followed by Dublin (drop of 33) and Kildare (drop of 17). The largest percentage drop was in Roscommon which had a 41% reduction, followed by Louth (-40%), Leitrim (-38%) and Cavan (-34%).
Eight counties saw an increase in claims with Laois seeing the largest. The Midlands county recorded eight additional claims in comparison with 2017.
CEO David Fitzgerald says people making genuine claims have no reason to worry - but a new survey shows an 8% drop in claims since the new measures were introduced.
"Some of it is mindset, taking the view that we are going to take a zero tolerance approach to these claims," said Mr Fitzgerald.
"We've added more resources both internally and externally. We're getting good support from the gardaí in terms of investigating those and then we're prepared to fight these claims in court.
"So if the facts don't add up, we've taken a harder line and we've got tough on these types of claims in effect."
