There has been an 8% drop in insurance claims in the first seven months of the year.

The Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) says it believes a strategy they introduced for fighting fraud is impacting on the market.

The MIBI is a non-profit organisation, set up to provide compensation to victims of accidents involving uninsured or untraced vehicles.

Over the January to July period this year, the MIBI received a total of 1,572 claims - a drop of 144 when compared to the same period in 2017.

Last year the group introduced a plan to make it "as difficult as possible" for fraudulent claims to succeed.

This included measures to put the full weight of its resources behind investigating suspicious claims, working with the Gardaí to look into these cases as well as legally contesting such claims and bringing them to trial.

Largest drop

The MIBI says it received fewer claims from 18 of the 26 counties.

The largest drop in number of claims came from Louth with 34 fewer received by the end of July, followed by Dublin (a drop of 33) and Kildare (drop of 17).

Source: MIBI

The largest percentage drop was in Roscommon which had a 41% reduction, followed by Louth (down 40%), Leitrim (down 38%) and Cavan (down 34%).

Of the eight counties which recorded an increase, the largest was in Laois which recorded eight additional claims in comparison with 2017.

'The days of easy settlements are over'

Speaking about the figures chief executive of the MIBI, David Fitzgerald, said: "It is positive to see that the number of claims is starting to reduce.

"Admittedly these figures represent only a snapshot in time and some of the county by county numbers are too small to draw any significant conclusions from.

"However, considering these statistics cover over half a year's worth of data, they are a useful barometer of the general MIBI claims’ environment and this shows a noteworthy drop in the total number of claims."

He added: "Fraudsters are starting to get the message that if they want to make a fictional claim to the MIBI then they will have to be prepared to have that claim put through microscopic examination.

"They will be thoroughly investigated by the MIBI working in co-operation with the Gardaí and if the evidence still doesn’t add up, they will be brought before the courts.

"The days of easy settlements for nonsense claims are definitely over."