The public is deeply ambivalent towards insurance fraud, according to a survey commissioned by one of the sector's major players.
Half of those interviewed on behalf of AXA Insurance believed most people would make a dishonest insurance claim if they thought they would get away with it.
Nearly one-third regarded inflated claims as a valid return for years of premium payment.
The Insurance Federation of Ireland (IFI) estimates fraudulent and exaggerated pay-outs add 2 per cent to the cost of the average insurance premium, or a total of €65 million in 2001.
The findings of the Millward Brown IMS survey of 1,200 people drawn from across the social spectrum will worry an industry that is struggling to redress what it admits is a serious image problem.
It has already been forced to fend off allegations that it is engaged in profiteering after the Motor Insurance Advisory Board last year reported the sector's profits eclipsed that of its British equivalent by a ratio of approximately 10 to one.
Antipathy - even open hostility - towards insurers is now widespread , an AXA spokesman said.
Many customers mistakenly believe the principal victims of fraud are the insurers when, in fact, the cost of bogus claims is added to premiums, the spokesman said.
Concern over rising levels of fraud has prompted a number of insurance companies to recruit gardaí to head in-house investigative units.
In early September, AXA appointed Mr Willie McGee, a former Detective Inspector at the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, as director of its anti-fraud division.
Mr McGee said his biggest challenge was altering the common perception that insurance fraud is a victimless crime and that insurance companies have limitless resources with which to meet claims that are without basis.
AXA has already passed on details to the gardaí of three suspicious payouts. Mr McGee is confident he will detect further cases over coming months.
He said: "We have only been in operation for a short period but it is already apparent that the level of fraud is, if anything, even higher than was suspected."
The AXA survey suggests insurance fraud is widely regarded as a routine activity.
Over half of those questioned agreed that "fraud is common in making insurance claims", rising to two-thirds among "insurance organisers" - those responsible for arranging insurance in a household.
But 68 per cent regarded people who inflate the values of their claims as dishonest. More than 55 per cent concurred that these individuals knowingly commit fraud.
The federation is lobbying the Government to introduce a special crime of fraud against an insurance company in its autumn sittings and intends to run a major awareness campaign on the issue in the near future.
