Blog & News

Month: September 2010

Message in a Hostel

One week on, Alistair and Nora are still on speaking terms.  The Yellow Brick road has taken them to a Hostel in the middle of, yes you guessed it nowhere. Far far away from the city of OZ and many more miles to go.  Arriving in late and in a new time zone the nights were their days and the days their nights.  After a short adventure to gather their bearings, even though the location was some distance from OZ it haled beautiful views of the waterfront and the mountains stretching up to the sky. They haven’t met the tin man get but they have seen a few scare crows around the place, especially travelling through the East Side of the Yellow Brick road. After a few days and sleepless nights Alistair and Nora moved into their new Hostel in a  place called “Downtown” – well if you have a loan of a cat, any size will do, they could put it to the test.  I don’t think the cat would do well from this exercise except a swore and very much bruised head. Getting use to the little man at the traffic lights was difficult for Nora, everyone waits until he says go but not Nora, waiting around just standing there seemed a waste of time.  Well after three police cautions and a J walking ticket Nora has decided to wait with all the other orderly Munchkins. Apart from the noise of the Munchkins going about their business both day and night, yesterday two of the remaining three mice moved out of the Hostel.  Today so will Alistair and Nora and try and find a new Hostel along the Yellow Brick road.   To continue their journey they are currently busy filling out all sorts of local documentation to enable them to travel along the road – it is very likely they will meet Mr Lion or even Mr Bear shortly. Remember courage and risk that is what it is all about – follow your yellow brick road

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Who are the guilty parties?

While waiting for a train the other day in Connolly Station I read a poster which said Insurance fraud is a crime and it gave detail where to report it.  My question is who are the guilty parties? Here is a story of a real experience of a situation where a motorcyclist came off his motorbike in front of a unmarked Company van.  When the van driver got out to see if the motorcyclist was O.K the motorcyclist proceeded to claim that the van driver had been the cause of the accident and then within minutes asked for €200 damages on the spot.  Of course the van driver disputed the fact as he had been in a stopped position in traffic and he also had a witness in the passenger seat to support this. After some discussion between both parties they departed without agreement.  The motorcyclist later reported the accident to the police and then some days later registered in an Emergency and Accident department of a hospital but never stayed to be seen by medical staff.  His next step was to contact a solicitor on a no fee no win basis- are you getting the picture? The Company owners of the van were then contacted some months later and a file was prepared with all statements and details related to the incident.  The insurance company was informed that it was strongly believed this was a fraudulent claim.  They were asked to investigate and run a check to see if the motorcyclist had any other previous claims of this nature.  Over time several discussions took place between the Company who owned the van (the insured) outlining serious issues in the claimants file and the claims made. The next stage in this saga was the Company received an insurance renewal invoice for double the previous year’s insurance premium.  When this was questioned they were informed it was because the Insurance Company had settled the case in question and paid out a considerable amount to the motorcyclist.  When asked for an explanation as to why they settled the case without any involvement of the insured the following reason was given, they had reviewed the case with their own solicitor and decided to settle as it could cost more to fight the case, so it was easier just to settle.  When asked what about the fraudulent nature and had this been investigated?  The answer was no. Insurance Company solicitor gets paid, the claimant and his solicitor gets paid the Insurance Company gets paid with a higher premium going forward and you lose your no claims bonus and get the bill So if  insurance fraud is a crime, who are the criminals in this story?  – You decide – I would agreed with the poster but I think they could add Insurance fraud is a crime but don’t worry because we don’t!

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