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FBD paid out €182m in claims in 2019 and estimates that it saved €23m defending potential fraud last year, a 21% increase on 2018.
The insurer reported nine cases of suspected fraud to the gardaí last year, with a spokesperson adding that the number would have been higher except that many fraudulent claims are withdrawn once challenged.
The company has a fraud unit which investigates and challenges spurious, exaggerated or fraudulent claims.
“Throughout 2019, we have invested in improving our fraud defences, including greater data analytics and advanced machine-learning technologies.
“This has improved our ability to identify and prevent fraud, which accounted for the increase in fraud savings.
“By value, we estimate that fraud or gross exaggeration savings are estimated to be in the mid-twenties but of course, we never know if we have caught them all,” the spokesperson said.
Injury claims
Gross exaggeration of injury claims is the most frequent and expensive type of fraud FBD encounters.
However, exaggeration of claims is not an offence unless the claimant gives false or misleading evidence during the court hearing and the judge finds this to be the case.
Last year, the insurer highlighted an attempted claim by the wife of a farmer. She alleged she slipped and fell on a mart premises but there were no witnesses and no report of the incident.
When FBD disputed liability, the woman withdrew her claim.
Farmers and mart employees make up the majority of all claims to FBD. Injury caused by livestock, a person receiving a blow from a gate or door and slips, trips and falls are the most common causes of claims.
Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) livestock services executive Ray Doyle has previously said that bogus claims need to be deterred and marts need to be protected from such claims to ensure they do not go out of business.
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