RTE finally calls out compo culture

In September 2010, he was stabbed at a wedding and got €5,500 compensation.

I’ve been at some wild weddings but nothing like this

Its interesting to note that culture can evolve in line with present day societal changes when it is financially beneficial to the purveyor of that culture.

whomitconcerns wrote: »

That list of claims is something else. The poor petal was held up twice in different bookies and needed 5k each time.

Not forgetting the two occasions he successfully sued for food poisoning due to a tin of baked beans.

I actually blame the solicitor firms taking on this waster as their client, they have absolutely no professional ethics or morals. The mind boggles.

I don't think I've ever had a "bad" tin of beans.

Kivaro wrote: »

Let's be clear ....... we are talking about RTE here.

Not to worry, RTE have made sure not to refer him as a Member of the Travelling Community in line with their unwritten policy of never doing so in negative stories.

Outside of that they are just reporting the goings on of a court case.

Paul Weller wrote: »

Why blame the people gleaming the cube so to speak..blame the system that allows this to happen over and over again..

Exactly, the rewards are too tempting for those who want to take advantage of every opportunity to bleed their neighbours.
For clarity, I'm referring to the legal profession who represent such claimants

Widdensushi wrote: »

It's more of an advertisement for it than calling it out, need money, look how easy it is, I don't see any of them charged or facing jail time, so no disencentive

They don’t hold any fear of going to prison so they can act contrary to normal society at every opportunity with no repercussions for doing so.

I’ve no fear that the solicitors in the case went in eyes wide open. The fact that they still took the cases is that more often than not win and get paid handsomely which is exactly what’s wrong with our legal system.

Regardless of what sector of society the claimants come from, there are no penalties for unfounded clsims. They literally have nothing to lose, and we wonder why our insurance industry is the joke of europe.....

James Bond Junior wrote: »

Four accused of 'grand scheme' to pocket compensation
http://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2020/1203/1182241-tullamore-fraud/


Journalist of the year in my book. RTE, in an unusual step for them, run a story about one of our erhnic minorities and the compo culture. This man is at the centre of the Garda shooting in Longford two years ago. More of this needs to happen imo, insurance costs are huge and this type of behaviour is costing us all a fortune and perpetuates as long as it isn't challenged.

Good on that Judge!

Ethnic Minorities?

Compo Culture is a line insurance companies like to push out so they can blame "criminals" for increases in premiums, while also casting doubt over every legitimate claim they are forced to pay out on.

Last year in front of a Dail committee several insurance companies gave estimates about how many fraudulent claims they received each year, and were then questions on the specifics. They estimated 20% of claims were fraudulent (which would mean thousands of fraudulent claims each year). How many do they report to the gardai as suspected fraud? tens of cases.

FBD estimated they received 60000 claims in a year (by their estimate 15000 should have been fraudulent). Yet in a 6 month period, only 19 cases were reported to the Gardai.

Allianz Ireland, over the course of a year had reported 48 cases to the Gardai, against 5000 injury claims. (That's just less than 1%). The CEO said they had investigated suspected cases of fraud, but could only find evidence enough to report these suspected crimes to the Gardai in 48 cases.

Between 2013 and Summer 2019 Axa had reported 50 cases to the Gardai (which resulted in 13 prosecutions and 4 jail terms).


We mostly seem to hear about big payouts when they seem to be about trivial incidents, and then the "compo culture" line is trotted out. Insurance Companies love this narrative. It excuses them increasing premiums, and it makes honest people feel question themselves, doubtful, or feel guilty when they have legit claims to make.


It is nice to see criminals get caught.

“She dismissed their claims, awarded legal costs against them and refused to put a stay on the award of costs.“

Legal costs against them - I presume that means they are responsible for the insurance companies legal costs?

I know they will claim, despite all their previous compo payouts, that they don’t have the money but can the insurance company get their costs out of any future payment?

I presume they have to pay their own solicitor or else they don’t get paid.

I think the legal profession would be less likely to take on dodgy cases if costs were awarded in this manner.

The judge refused to put a stay on the award of costs - what does that mean?

MynamesColm wrote: »

Ethnic Minorities?

Compo Culture is a line insurance companies like to push out so they can blame "criminals" for increases in premiums, while also casting doubt over every legitimate claim they are forced to pay out on.

Last year in front of a Dail committee several insurance companies gave estimates about how many fraudulent claims they received each year, and were then questions on the specifics. They estimated 20% of claims were fraudulent (which would mean thousands of fraudulent claims each year). How many do they report to the gardai as suspected fraud? tens of cases.

FBD estimated they received 60000 claims in a year (by their estimate 15000 should have been fraudulent). Yet in a 6 month period, only 19 cases were reported to the Gardai.

Allianz Ireland, over the course of a year had reported 48 cases to the Gardai, against 5000 injury claims. (That's just less than 1%). The CEO said they had investigated suspected cases of fraud, but could only find evidence enough to report these suspected crimes to the Gardai in 48 cases.

Between 2013 and Summer 2019 Axa had reported 50 cases to the Gardai (which resulted in 13 prosecutions and 4 jail terms).


We mostly seem to hear about big payouts when they seem to be about trivial incidents, and then the "compo culture" line is trotted out. Insurance Companies love this narrative. It excuses them increasing premiums, and it makes honest people feel question themselves, doubtful, or feel guilty when they have legit claims to make.


It is nice to see criminals get caught.

If you knew anything about the insurance industry other than what Charlie Weston reports, you would know that proving fraudulent claims is nigh on impossible.

You are also taking the term fraudulent claims at face value.

Fraudulent claims are multifaceted.

There are the clear and obvious ones like the one in the OP from serial claimants. Or cases where engineers reports from accident scenes are inconsistent with claimants versions. Or the case a few months ago of a non national that had his case thrown out after being filmed by a private investigator. https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/conman-who-claims-serious-back-21378348

They are easy enough to identify and plough the required resources into and then ultimately report them to AGS when conspiracy to defraud is beyond reasonable doubt.

But what about cases where a legitimate accident did occur eg car A reverses into car B in a shopping centre car park. An accident happened, of that there is no doubt however when the occupants of car B bring an injury claim for soft tissue damage, PTSD and other ailments. How do you prove that these ailments are false? The impact was at less than 5km per hour so unless they are made of glass the injuries are highly unlikely to have occured, but "whiplash" is virtually impossible to prove or disprove.

Or cases where there was a crash on a road at say 20 or 30km per hour. Again, an accident has occured but when Mary from down the road is claiming life changing injuries on the back of it, how can the insurer prove beyond reasonable doubt that she is on the take?

Using the term fraudulent claims does a disservice to insurers at it automatically conjures up images like the OP. I personally prefer to refer to them as false and exaggerated claims rather than fraudulent as that in actuality is what many of them are.

The laws in this country are heavily skewed in favour of injured parties and generally, if a case goes before the courts the claimant will be paid out.

The only big winners in all this is the legal system.

On average, the level of compensation awarded for cases settled through the injuries board is virtually identical to litigated cases. The difference? 30% to 60% additional solicitors fees on top of the compensation award.

Until claims awards are re-calibrated to come inline with the rest of Europe and until people found to be making fraudulent penalties face real sanctions up to and including jail time, nothing, absolutely nothing will change.