One of Ireland's largest motor insurers today admitted it has overcharged thousands of its customers.
Quinn Insurance said it will pay back refunds totalling €293,000 to 13,000 policy holders it short-changed over five years.
Colin Morgan, General Manager of Quinn Insurance, said the error had been discovered during an internal review.
"We would like to apologise to all the affected customers from 2001 to 2006 for these errors in calculating refunds on their policies and we will repay all amounts in the coming weeks," he said.
The average refund to customers of the 18,500 affected policies will be €15.77 while Quinn Insurance said it will add compound interest.
The insurer said it incorrectly calculated refunds due to customers after they had cancelled their motor insurance policies.
A Quinn spokesman said: "The errors occurred due to the system not calculating the refund on the total amount of premium charged on changes to policies."
He added: "These refunds do not relate to the recent court case involving Quinn Insurance and the Financial Services Ombudsman."
Quinn Insurance said it will write to all affected customers in the coming days with details of each error and the amount owed to them.
The insurer also said it has reported the matter to the Financial Regulator.