A tribunal has ruled NRMA Insurance engaged in discrimination when it rejected a child sex offender’s bid to buy public liability cover for his gardening business.

The insurer relied on an “irrelevant criminal record” to turn down the Canberra man last year, the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal says in a ruling published last week.

The IAG-owned insurer is reviewing the decision, a spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au. The case has been listed for submissions on remedy on July 26.

NRMA Insurance says its decision was guided by its internal “moral code” and the group’s “moral risk” underwriting guidelines.

The ruling notes its refusal was based on a belief that “people with serious criminal convictions were perceived as constituting so great a risk that they could not be insured”.

But NRMA Insurance could not provide the actuarial data to back its assertion.

“Accordingly, the tribunal is satisfied on the evidence before it that [NRMA Insurance] has refused the service of insurance… on the basis of a moral assessment, guided by the moral guidelines, and not on the basis of any relevant actuarial considerations,” the ruling says.

“The tribunal is satisfied that the [insurer] has discriminated against the [man] by refusing to supply him with commercial insurance because of an irrelevant criminal record.”

The man had personal lines policies with NRMA Insurance when he called twice last year to ask about public liability cover for his gardening business.

He lodged a complaint about the rejection with the ACT Human Rights Commission, which referred it to the tribunal.