Mr. John Twomey:

I thank the Chairman and committee for their invitation to attend today.

By way of an introduction, I reiterate that An Garda Síochána is determined to tackle insurance fraud. It has and will continue to invest significant time and resources in doing so. I have provided an opening statement and propose to run through it in summary form.

By way of background, we have been actively involved in the Government's cost of insurance working group. Commissioner Harris has met the Minister of Stateat the Department of Finance, Deputy D'Arcy, on a number of occasions. Also, senior officers from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau have actively engaged with industry groups and individual companies for several years. I am joined here today by Chief Superintendent Pat Lordan who is in charge of the bureau and leads our work in the area.

For our part, An Garda Síochána is focused on identifying anyone involved in the making of bogus insurance claims and to maximise the potential to initiate prosecutions. We believe that the best way of doing this is through a co-ordinated approach on a countrywide basis. This can best be seen from recent activity under Operation Coatee. We launched the operation in April of this year and it is focused on the prevention and detection of insurance related fraud and associated crimes. Recently we had a specific day of action that focused on more than 20 insurance claims that we believed may be fraudulent and which, in some cases, had already involved payment being made to claimants. Investigations carried out by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau indicate that a number of targets in this operation have submitted multiple claims and in many circumstances while using false identities. The suspected bogus claims result from false claims of injury sustained through slips and falls. During the course of the searches additional evidence was gathered with a view to submitting files to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The detectives from GNECB also seized high-value cars and jewellery worth more than €300,000 along with a substantial amount of documentation and financial records. Additionally, on the same day, a number of search warrants were executed at other locations. All evidence gathered on the day of action continues to be analysed as we speak.

On an ongoing basis we work to continue to make improvements to our processes, systems and resourcing. Working closely with Insurance Ireland, updated guidelines for insurance entities on how to report insurance fraud to An Garda Síochána were developed, co-signed and published by the GNECB last year.

In October 2018, the Police Using Leading Systems Effectively, PULSE, was updated and insurance fraud and other categories of economic crime were introduced as separate crime categories. This will enable An Garda Síochána to monitor trends in the area of economic crime and plan an appropriate response.

At meetings between Commissioner Harris and the Minister of State, Deputy D’Arcy, both parties agreed that private funding of a specialist insurance fraud unit was not the preferred option. However, discussions have commenced on possible opportunities to provide additional support in the areas of IT software, training and analysis. Commissioner Harris has also informed the Minister of State that, in line with the overall Garda strategy, the GNECB will focus on major organised frauds, including insurance cases and individual insurance frauds at the centre, and the more complicated investigations will be conducted by the national unit while divisional units will focus on the less complicated cases with either support from the national unit or additional training being provided to them.

This division-led approach that we talk about is currently being trialled as part of our divisional policing model that is being rolled out in four Garda divisions around the country.

In addition, the national unit will co-ordinate all ongoing investigations throughout the country. As the work is ongoing, we can begin to get an idea of the information available and the extent of ongoing investigations.

It is important that there be sufficient expertise at divisional level. This year an additional 50 gardaí have been trained. In the past two years over 130 have been trained throughout the country. An additional six sergeants and six gardaí were provided for the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau to work in this and other areas related to fraud. We will extend the competition for places in the bureau and expect it to be run in the second half of the year, with additional resources provided for Chief Superintendent Patrick Lordan and his team. In the meantime, we continue to develop in-house expertise in investigating insurance related fraud and provide training for the additional gardaí, detective gardaí and detective sergeants. They receive fraud training as part of their induction training. Throughout the course experienced fraud investigators provide presentations on both legislation and fraud investigation techniques relevant to economic crime investigations, including the investigation of insurance related fraud. Representatives from the private sector, including the insurance industry, are also invited to contribute to the course, thereby providing specialist insight into relevant insurance sector related topics.

The report on the cost of motor insurance recognises that preventing insurance fraud is not the responsibility of one party alone. This was re-emphasised at the fraud round-table discussion hosted by the Department of Finance. At the discussion An Garda Síochána committed to engaging closely with the insurance industry and meet regularly with Insurance Ireland's anti-fraud forum to discuss and act on ongoing issues. The enhanced co-operation will be very important in the future.

I will conclude by reiterating my opening comments. I reassure members of the committee, the insurance industry and the members of the public watching that An Garda Síochána will continue to deal with insurance related fraud and that we continue to take this matter very seriously. I re-emphasise the importance of insurance companies and individuals reporting potential fraud to An Garda Síochána. As I said, we are determined to identify insurance fraudsters and seek their prosecution. We commit to doing everything possible to achieve that objective.