Two men have been jailed in separate incidents for acting as ghost insurance brokers.
The first, who had previously worked for an insurance broker, retained his client list and mobile phone number when he left. When contacted by his past customers he was able to exploit his knowledge of the market and issue fake policies to hundreds of people.
Using false personal details, he acquired numerous fake motor insurance policies for people. He also created fake no claims discount letters (NCDs), which he submitted to insurance companies to significantly lower the price of the premium. Operating solely from the Hull area his unwitting victims were based all across the UK but predominantly in the North East.
He mainly used price comparison websites when incepting the fake policies and his activity spanned across multiple websites. On one website several hundred policies had been bought using the same personal details, which linked them together.
In terms of financial gain from his ghost broking activity, a financial investigation identified a significant amount of transactions passing through his bank accounts during the years of his offences. It is estimated that he gained roughly £25,000.
Following an investigation by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), Nigel Fox was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
And again ….
In a separate investigation Abdul Hakim was convicted of attempting to steal more than £321,000 by selling 21 fake car insurance policies and making 18 fraudulent motor insurance claims for fictional car accidents.
Hakim acted as a ghost broker and enticed unsuspecting drivers with offers of cheap car insurance, when in reality the cover was fake. He offered discounted prices by altering the address on the policy to a location where the cost of an insurance policy is especially low, such as rural parts of the UK.
Once Hakim took out the policies using the fake ‘low-value’ addresses he would then alter them again with the victim’s actual address so they remained unaware that the policy was fake.
While his victim’s thought they were getting a good deal Hakim was stealing their money by incorporating a ‘finder’s fee’ and also charging them hundreds or thousands more than it had originally cost him to purchase the policy using the low-value address; in some instances over £3,000.
It was also discovered that he’d been making false motor insurance claims using the details of his ghost broking victims.
Hakim would search legitimate websites which advertised damaged vehicles for sale and use these vehicles to fabricate an accident that never happened. With access to his victim’s online insurance account, he’d then contact the insurer, pretending to be the policy holder and provide details of the crash and accept fault for it.
Hakim would then go onto contact the same insurer, but this time posing as the other driver involved in the accident, either directly as them or their claims management company. He’d provide identical details of the accident and make a claim for compensation.
To substantiate his false claims and generate as big a pay-out as possible, Hakim would provide falsified engineer reports, heavily inflated credit hire charges and fake evidence for personal injuries sustained during the accident. On a few occasions, Hakim also called purporting to be from solicitors representing the claimant.
Hakim was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.
