Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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91. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prosecutions brought to court, the number of convictions secured for fraudulent insurance claims and a breakdown of the class of insurance, such as car insurance, fire insurance, flood insurance and public liability for each of the years from 2011 to 2015 and 2016 to date, in tabular form; the penalties that can be imposed in respect of convictions for this criminal offence; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19265/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Central Statistics Office (CSO), as the national statistical agency, is responsible for the compilation and publication of the official recorded crime statistics, and the CSO has established a dedicated unit for this purpose. I understand that while statistics in relation to fraud offences are produced the breakdown in relation to insurance fraud requested by the Deputy is not recorded in the official crime figures. However, to be of assistance I have asked the CSO to forward the available statistics in relation to the matters referred to directly to the Deputy.

Insofar as the question of penalties are concerned, depending on the individual circumstances of the case, the following offences in the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 may be relevant:

Section 6 (Making gain or causing loss by deception) provides that a person who dishonestly, with the intention of making a gain for himself or herself or another, or of causing loss to another, by any deception induces another to do or refrain from doing an act is guilty of an offence. A person is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both.

Section 25 (Forgery) provides that a person is guilty of forgery is he or she makes a false instrument with the intention that it shall be used to induce another person to accept it as genuine and, by reason of so accepting it, to do some act, or to make some omission, to the prejudice of that person or any other person. A person is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or both. There are also offences of ‘Using false instrument’ (section 26), ‘Copying false instrument (section 27), ‘Using copy of false instrument (section 28), ‘Custody or control of certain false instruments, etc (section 29). The definition of 'instrument' is contained in section 24 and includes a certificate of insurance.

In addition, the following penalties exist in the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 in relation to personal injury claims:

Section 25 of the Act makes it an offence to give or adduce or dishonestly cause to be given or adduced evidence that is false or misleading and which the person knows to be false or misleading. It is also to be an offence to give, adduce etc. false instructions or information to a solicitor or expert. The section applies to actions pending at its commencement as well as to subsequent actions.

Section 29 of the Act provides that a person guilty of an offence under Part 2 of the Act shall be liable, on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €100,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or both. A person tried summarily shall on conviction be subject to a fine not exceeding €3,000 (under section 5 of the Fines Act 2010, this fine would be classified as a Class B fine i.e. a fine not exceeding €4,000) or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both.