Further to our article of 16/08/2022 where we reported news of a Yorkshire man receiving a 12-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation, another conviction for fraud has just been secured. A Liverpool local received a 16-month prison sentence on Monday 22nd August 2022, after submitting over £75,000 of bogus travel insurance claims.
Forging emails from police officers, family members, former colleagues, his partner and even her family to make claims in respect of injury, disruption, or redundancy due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there appeared to be no end to the elaborate excuses used to substantiate his false claims. The Liverpool fraudster showed a complete disregarding for the impact on these innocent parties.
This spree of insurance claims would have continued had it not been for one insurer with whom a claim had been made. Suspicion around the fraudster’s activities first came to fruition when he submitted consecutive claims with this insurer, but was unable to provide explanations when asked to, regarding a lack of records relating to his flight bookings.
After having gained this information, the insurer was prompted to dig deeper into earlier claims for alleged missed flights. Soon enough, after a police officer who had been impersonated by the fraudster confirmed that the email allegedly sent by him was fake, the case was referred to the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) and the string of false claims was unravelled.
Further investigation and an arrest in October 2020 uncovered a total of 15 fraudulent claims made to a total of 5 other insurance companies. The insurer who had uncovered the fraudster’s activities welcomed the sentencing and commented that the decision of the Court demonstrates the serious nature of insurance fraud. On the other hand, the fraudster has become the subject of a Proceeds of Crime investigation (as the fraud serves as a predicate offence to money laundering), and has been left with a criminal record, a tarnished reputation and an uncertain future.
Anti-Financial Crime Support – How can Complyport Help?
Our experienced Financial Crime and Forensics team led by Martin Schofield—one of the world’s leading specialists in the field—brings a wealth of experience to every project we are engaged in. Our highly experienced financial crime professionals and forensic experts, in subjects such as anti-money laundering, counter terrorist financing, anti-bribery and corruption and fraud and regularly help our clients navigate the complexities of the financial crime and money laundering environment. Services offered by Complyport include:
- AML/Fraud policy & training reviews,
- Transaction monitoring / reporting framework reviews,
- Vulnerable Customer Management framework reviews/audits/gap analysis,
- Financial crime health checks and audits,
- Implementation of financial crime, AML, CTF, ABC, Fraud and market abuse controls and frameworks,
- Ongoing advice on financial crime, AML, CTF, market abuse and fraud prevention,
- Authoring/reviewing financial crime policies,
- Outsourced MLRO support
- Outsourced KYC and CDD support,
- Assistance in identifying Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs),
- Assistance in navigating international sanctions,
- Support with preventing market abuse and insider dealing,
- Expert Witness in Financial Crime cases
- Forensics and Investigations
- Design and/or delivery of online or face to face financial crime training
If this article has raised any questions, or you think your firm may require assistance, please contact either Martin Schofield via martin.schofield@complyport.co.uk or Jan Hagen via jan.hagen@complyport.co.uk to book in a free consultation.
About Complyport
Complyport is the City’s market leading consulting firm supporting the UK financial services industry for over 20 years. We specialise in providing Governance, Risk and Compliance services to support the regulated financial services industry to raise standards and thrive.
Complyport advises and assists firms to become authorised and to comply with the rules and requirements of regulators on an ongoing basis. Our vision is to be there for our clients every step of the way, helping them change, grow, and excel through expertise, insight, and innovation, and in so doing to become our clients’ most valued supplier and trusted advisor.
With presence in the UK and EU, as well as via our Associates Network, Complyport can assist firms across multiple jurisdictions.
Complyport’s multidisciplinary consultants possess deep expertise in their field, having acted in FCA skilled person reviews, as expert witnesses in legal cases and as expert investigators for firms or their legal advisers.
Day to day, we conduct audits and reviews of a firm’s products, processes, policies, and procedures to identify scope for business, to determine the impact of regulatory developments and to verify compliance with local regulations. Complyport can also assist firms by providing personnel to cover all the key compliance functions including resourcing individuals to be registered as your Compliance Oversight Function (SMF16) and/or Money-Laundering Reporting Officer (SMF17).
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