Insurers now ‘check Facebook for fraud’

FACEBOOK, Twitter and other forms of social media are now routinely checked for evidence of insurance fraud, the High Court was told yesterday.

Fintan Smith, of insurance firm FBD, was giving evidence during a High Court appeal lodged by the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland, which compensates victims of uninsured or untraced cars.

The MIBI has challenged Circuit Court awards of damages ranging from €3,000 to €8,500, which were made to seven occupants of a minibus.

The group had claimed they were injured while on their way to a night at the dogs in Dundalk in 2008, citing whiplash as the cause of their pain. The car said to have caused the accident was never traced.

The MIBI had denied the group’s claims when they appeared at the Circuit Court.

Mr Smith said he had accessed the Facebook page of Lyndsey Gervin, 33, a mother of two from Coalisland, Co. Tyrone, who had successfully sued over injuries to her neck and back in the accident.

She was questioned in the High Court by the MIBI last month over entries on her Facebook page which appeared to show she had done gym workouts since the accident.

Mr Smith said he had checked her Facebook page, which was set to ‘public’, after hearing testimony in which she had said she had been unable to go to the gym.

He said FBD was one of four or five insurance companies which handled claims.

He explained: ‘It would be common practice for us in cases where we have concerns to search social media. We take the person’s mobile phone number and type it into Facebook, which gives us a very specific profile for that person.’ The court also heard from two gardaí that no debris was found at the scene of the 2008 accident.

Ms Justice Marie Baker she would give her judgment in around three weeks’ time.