Former president of the High Court, Mr Justice Kearns has criticised the State’s loss-making insurers for not seeking the prosecution of people found to have made fraudulent injury claims.
Speaking yesterday at a conference on Ireland’s soaring personal injury costs and insurance premiums, Mr Justice Kearns said: “A particular bugbear of mine is the lack of resolve there appears to be by many insurers to tackle fraudulent claims and fight them to the end.”
When fraud is uncovered in civil cases, typically the claimant withdraws their claim without any further repercussions, he said, with insurers failing to make a complaint to the Garda, who could investigate and refer to the DPP.
The issue has been thrown into sharp relief by a recent UK study by Axa, the French insurer, which found that up to a third of respondents have either committed insurance fraud or thought it was justifiable to exaggerate a claim.
