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Insurance fraud has reached epidemic levels in the UK. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
It's costing us more than £1.3 billion every year. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:14 | |
That's almost 3.6 million every day. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
Deliberate crashes, bogus personal injuries, even phantom pets. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:24 | |
The fraudsters are risking more and more to make a quick killing, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
and every year, it's adding around £50 to your insurance bill. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:34 | |
But insurers are fighting back, | 0:00:34 | 0:00:36 | |
exposing just under 15 fake claims every hour. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:39 | |
Armed with covert surveillance systems... | 0:00:39 | 0:00:41 | |
That's the subject out the vehicle. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
..sophisticated data analysis techniques... | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
-Police! -..and a number of highly skilled police units... | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
Police! Don't move, stay where you are. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
-..they're catching the criminals red-handed. -Just don't lie to us. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
All those con-men, scammers, and cheats on the fiddle | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
are now caught in the act, and claimed and shamed. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
A simple speeding ticket leads to the bust of | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
a sophisticated fraud operation... | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
The scale of the fraud was massive. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
..a wannabe master forger needs some serious lessons in spelling, | 0:01:20 | 0:01:24 | |
and speaking... | 0:01:24 | 0:01:25 | |
His behaviour changed quite dramatically. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
He started to gabble... | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
..to the point that he was actually losing control. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
..and a gamble that a betting shop wasn't fitted with CCTV | 0:01:35 | 0:01:39 | |
doesn't pay out. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
When dealing with large scale frauds, | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
sometimes it's the smallest mistake that cracks the case wide open. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
In this case, a simple speed camera fine led to | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
a fraud that was worth almost a quarter of a million pounds. | 0:01:56 | 0:02:00 | |
If a motorist is caught speeding on camera, | 0:02:03 | 0:02:05 | |
it's a straightforward process. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:07 | |
A form is sent out to the registered owner of the car, and they're | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
asked to fill in the details of who was driving at the time. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
That person then receives an appropriate penalty. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
Some try and cheat the system by entering false details. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:23 | |
However, officers like PC Graham Radcliffe of the | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
Greater Manchester Police are there to catch them. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
The case first came to light when a Mercedes car activated two | 0:02:28 | 0:02:33 | |
speed cameras, one in Manchester, and one in the Midlands. | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
Information was sent to the owner of the Mercedes to find out | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
who was driving the car when it was caught speeding. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
The forms were returned to the police, | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
saying that a woman had been behind the wheel. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
That woman was subsequently convicted. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
But there was a twist - she'd NEVER been in the car. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
She wasn't aware of the fact that she'd been nominated in the | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
first place, and it was as a result of her subsequently complaining | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
the fact that she'd been wrongly convicted that my inquiry began. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:08 | |
Little did he know where it would lead, | 0:03:08 | 0:03:10 | |
or what he was about to uncover. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:13 | |
Graham established that the woman was indeed telling the truth. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
She had nothing to do with the speeding Mercedes. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
Complex investigations into how this woman's name had wrongly ended up | 0:03:20 | 0:03:24 | |
on the form led Graham to an accident management company, | 0:03:24 | 0:03:28 | |
called Optimum Claim Solutions, | 0:03:28 | 0:03:30 | |
owned by a man called Jason Brown. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
The company did have some legitimate business, | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
but Graham was quickly able to establish that Brown was | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
involved in some very dubious activities indeed. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:47 | |
He'd found that he could make more money out of falsely creating | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
accidents and making claims, | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
particularly very high credit hire claims for hire cars, | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
for accidents that never existed, and personal injury claims. | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
So, Brown was using his accident management company illegally | 0:04:01 | 0:04:05 | |
in two distinct ways. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
Firstly, he'd make up totally imaginary accidents and claim | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
that passengers had been injured in order to get pay-outs | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
from insurance companies. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:14 | |
He'd also tell insurers that he'd provided very expensive hire cars | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
for people waiting for their crashed cars to be fixed. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:22 | |
Again, the accidents would be totally fictitious. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:26 | |
Graham arrested Jason Brown, | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
and both his home and business premises were thoroughly searched. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
What was uncovered was clearly a large scale fraud in relation | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
to false credit hire claims to insurance companies | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
following accidents, accidents which never happened. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
Graham worked closely with those companies | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
who had been targeted by Brown. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:51 | |
One of them was insurance providers Allianz. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
Mihir Pandya heads up their fraud department. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
As it turned out, Jason Brown was already on their radar. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
His vehicle had allegedly been involved in an accident | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
resulting in multiple whiplash claims. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
The total value of the claims submitted to us was in | 0:05:09 | 0:05:11 | |
the region of £30,000. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
A significant sum, and not something that would be paid out | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
no questions asked. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:18 | |
When we receive claims of this kind, it's routine to do some enquiries. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:23 | |
Almost immediately, they discovered fundamental problems. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:27 | |
So many discrepancies. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
Some of the people were getting... | 0:05:29 | 0:05:30 | |
Which car they were in, they were getting that wrong. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
They were using old addresses for Jason Brown when they were | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
asked to say what details they'd just swapped. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
It even transpired that another car - the premium for that | 0:05:38 | 0:05:43 | |
insurance was paid by Jason Brown himself. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
The multiple inconsistencies and the apparent links back to Brown | 0:05:46 | 0:05:50 | |
called the whole claim into question. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:52 | |
We started to have suspicions that this, in fact, | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
was a staged motor accident, so we contacted Mr Brown. | 0:05:55 | 0:06:00 | |
He ignored our letters. We tried to call him, he ignored our calls. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:01 | |
After a few months, | 0:07:01 | 0:07:02 | |
all the claims for the whiplash injuries were dropped. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:04 | |
Thought that was the end of the matter, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
and it was a year later when Greater Manchester Police contacted us. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
Still to come - | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
the police uncover yet more of Brown's insurance fraud shenanigans. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:17 | |
He's just become over-confident with the fact that | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
he can get away with it, but didn't think it through properly. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:24 | |
And sometimes, love hurts. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
A woman finds herself with a criminal conviction after an | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
attempt to protect her boyfriend. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
Think before you act. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:33 | |
Now, when you pop down to the shops, the last thing on your mind | 0:07:38 | 0:07:41 | |
is getting hurt, but accidents can and do happen anywhere. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:46 | |
Most shops make sure they have insurance, | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
so if someone is injured on their premises, | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
and it's in some way deemed to be the shop's fault, | 0:07:50 | 0:07:52 | |
then the injured person can be properly compensated, | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
and the pay-outs can be quite hefty. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
Royal Sun Alliance provides insurance for many retailers, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
and it's John Beadle's job to make sure that, when someone makes | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
a claim against one of his clients, it's 100% legit. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
It's not unusual for people to put in spurious claims alleging | 0:08:16 | 0:08:22 | |
that they'd suffered injury in premises such as supermarkets, | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
and numerous other locations, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:28 | |
but all these premises are routinely covered by CCTV, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:32 | |
and it is amazing, really, | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
that people still attempt to make these kind of allegations, | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
which are clearly refuted by a simple review of the CCTV footage. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:44 | |
So, when you're out doing your shopping, | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
never forget Big Brother is watching you. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:48 | |
Back in 2015, one of John Beadle's team members received | 0:08:50 | 0:08:54 | |
a call from a man who had fallen over in a shop that RSA cover. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
So, in this particular case, | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
the allegation was that they'd entered a betting shop, | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
from a well-known high street chain, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
and had slipped on a wet floor, causing injury. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:11 | |
It was slightly unbelievable, but not impossible. | 0:09:12 | 0:09:16 | |
I guess somebody could have spilled a drink, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
or it might have been raining outside | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
but, of course, the first thing we would do in such circumstances | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
would be to review the CCTV. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:27 | |
Unbeknownst to the claimant, | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
the betting shop was covered by CCTV cameras. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
And from the moment they reviewed the footage, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
the odds were firmly stacked against this particular gambler. | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
You see, they didn't slip on the wet floor at all. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
It was a mistake by the person in sitting down on his stool, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
which caused him to fall. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
The gentleman just puts the stool too far in, | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
and when he goes to sit down, he actually falls off the back of it. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:03 | |
The claimant clearly hadn't known that he was being watched | 0:10:03 | 0:10:06 | |
by security cameras, and this was his major slip-up. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
Frankly, when we first got this claim, | 0:10:10 | 0:10:11 | |
we couldn't believe that the person was making it, | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
because it's quite clear what the cause of the accident was, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:19 | |
and it was nobody's fault but his own. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:22 | |
When confronted with the evidence, the claimant understood that, | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
like him, the story just didn't stand up. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
We told him that, as a result of this investigation, | 0:10:30 | 0:10:33 | |
we would not be paying this claim, | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
and he clearly must have thought twice about it, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
and the claim went away. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
John's investigations had put a stop to RSA having to pay out | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
compensation of around £6,000 for this clearly dishonest claim. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:50 | |
Insurers are wise to this type of spurious claim. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:56 | |
We will investigate each and every case fully. | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
There is no quick pot of gold available here. | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
My advice to people is - don't do this, you will get caught, | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
and there can be severe penalties if you are found guilty of fraud. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:13 | |
Now, coming back from a lovely, relaxing holiday to find | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
your luggage has been lost is something we all dread. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
That growing panic as it becomes clear that the carousel | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
is never going to spit out your suitcase, | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
and all you can do is watch as, one by one, your fellow travellers | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
mosey off with their bags, leaving you standing there all alone. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:37 | |
If you think I'm being dramatic, well, you'd be right, | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
but believe me, it happens. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
This is what recently happened to a man flying back from | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
his holiday in Europe. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:50 | |
Luckily, though, this clever chap had thought to take out | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
travel insurance, and he put in a claim for his lost luggage. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:59 | |
The case was handled by Claire Mitten, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
an Operations Director at I-Cog Claims Management. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
I-Cog are a fraud detection company that specialise in exposing | 0:12:09 | 0:12:13 | |
dishonest claims. Their operatives are trained in the technique | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
of conversation management. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
Just by talking to someone on the phone, | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
they can tell if that person is being genuine. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
In other words, they're human lie detectors. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
The case of the missing luggage was referred to Claire | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
-to be thoroughly unpacked. -When the claim was presented to us, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
it actually looked like it could be a genuine claim. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
He'd had confirmation from the airline in relation to | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
the luggage going missing. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:42 | |
We'd also received his boarding passes and his tickets | 0:12:42 | 0:12:44 | |
to confirm he had actually travelled to Paris at the time. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:48 | |
So the claimant's luggage had genuinely disappeared, but it was | 0:12:48 | 0:12:52 | |
the detail of what was inside that gave Claire pause for thought. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:56 | |
It was when we got to talk about the items that were supposedly in | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
his suitcase that alarm bells started to ring, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
and we actually realised that he couldn't even describe | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
the simplest of items to us, | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
so whereas somebody would be able to explain to you, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
"It was a patterned shirt, it was a striped shirt," he was only | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
able to tell us, "It was black, it was brown and it was plain." | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
However, one thing the claimant COULD remember about | 0:13:16 | 0:13:19 | |
his clothes was that some of them were very expensive indeed. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
The claim in total was worth £4,000. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
£2,000 of that was clothing, especially designer labels, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:29 | |
with £2,000 worth of cash. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
There was also some female shoes that he was claiming for, when | 0:13:31 | 0:13:34 | |
actually he travelled alone, so this didn't make any sense to us either. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:39 | |
Hey, doesn't everyone wear stilettos in Paris? | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
Anyway, understandably, the insurance company asked their | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
customer if he had proof of purchase for any of the lost items. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
We received an array of receipts from the insured. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:52 | |
One was from a high street store, which was genuine, | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
and we believe these items HAD been in his suitcase at the time. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
The other one was from an online retailer. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
Again, it was genuine, it was exactly how we expected it to look. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
However, when he came on to the other items, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
such as the designer labels, the receipts were very interesting. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:11 | |
-Interesting is one way of putting it. -For starters, | 0:14:11 | 0:14:15 | |
they were both presented to us on an A4 piece of paper. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
Very unusual, in this day and age, | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
for a receipt of this nature to be like this. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
There were spelling mistakes. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
He was claiming for suits, so a three-piece suit, | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
but he actually put on the receipt that the shop sold SUITES, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
as in three-piece suites. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
He even spelt Gucci wrong. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:34 | |
At the bottom of the receipts, he'd also intended to put, | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
"Thank you for your business," | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
but unfortunately he'd actually put, "Thank you for YOU business". | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
Two companies wouldn't make this mistake. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:46 | |
Armed with these clothing receipts in hand, Claire called | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
the claimant in the hope he'd own up to faking the receipts. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
When we discussed our concerns with the insured, | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
his behaviour changed quite dramatically. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
He started to gabble, to the point that he was actually losing control. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
He was also using delaying tactics, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
so he was asking us to put information in writing. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
He was trying to buy himself some time to think about | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
what he wanted to say. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:12 | |
The claimant was sticking firmly to his story, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
as yet unprepared for the damning evidence Claire had up her sleeve. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
Unbelievably, he wasn't willing to admit that he'd faked the receipts. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:16 | |
This guy may have been one of the most stubborn claimants Claire | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
had come across, but it's fair to say he wasn't one of the brightest. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
And there would be another huge mistake in his claim | 0:18:22 | 0:18:25 | |
that made a mockery of the whole episode. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
Not only did we have the problem with the receipts, | 0:18:30 | 0:18:32 | |
there was also quite a clear problem with the dates that he'd provided. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:36 | |
The luggage was actually lost in January 2014, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:39 | |
but the items he says, or alleged, he had bought were purchased | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
in December 2014, so 12 months after the incident actually occurred. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:47 | |
Yep, you heard right. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
Rather incredibly, the claimant was trying to get money back | 0:18:51 | 0:18:55 | |
for clothes he hadn't yet bought when his suitcase was lost. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:59 | |
Claire put this to him. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:00 | |
The claimant wasn't budging from his story. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:04 | |
Despite a thorough dressing down from Claire, | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
he wasn't willing to admit any wrongdoing. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
At the beginning of the call, when I planned my call, | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
I had no doubt that the insured would actually confess that these | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
were fraudulent receipts that he'd created himself. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
I also thought, if he didn't go down that route, | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
he would look to withdraw his claim. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:23 | |
He continued throughout the whole call. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
He did not give in, he was not going to give himself up, really, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
and say that he had made a fraudulent claim. | 0:20:28 | 0:20:30 | |
I was really surprised by this, at the end of the call. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:33 | |
Claire may have been impressed by the customer's resilience, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
but she wasn't taken with his skill as a master forger. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:40 | |
In relation to the fraudulent receipts that I've seen before, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:43 | |
these were probably some of the worst I've seen. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
In fact, they were almost quite comical. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
There wasn't just one mistake, | 0:20:48 | 0:20:49 | |
it was absolutely riddled with mistakes, from spelling to grammar. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
It was just quite embarrassing for the insured, really. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
Even though Claire hadn't been able to get an admission of guilt, | 0:20:56 | 0:20:59 | |
she recommended to his insurers not to pay the claimant a penny. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:03 | |
With the type of work that we do here at I-Cog, | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
you will get found out if it's an exaggerated claim. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
You might think it's easy just to add on an extra mobile phone, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
just add on an extra item of clothing, or whatever, | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
but the way that we ask the questions and the way that we | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
get information from you, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
we will be able to understand that these claims are exaggerated. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
Coming up - a DIY enthusiast who attempted to defraud | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
his insurance sees his claim come crumbling down. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:36 | |
Not only would we have to cancel the policy, | 0:21:36 | 0:21:38 | |
but we'd also have to seek the money back, | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
for the sums that we paid for the replacement of the items. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
Now, despite what you might see in the movies, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
these days, it's not that easy to steal a car. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
Hi-tech security features are now standard, but if a thief gets | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
hold of your keys, well, there's not much you can do about it. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
Mike Brown is Direct Line Group's Head of Counter Fraud Intelligence. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
His company recently dealt with a claim for a stolen car. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:17 | |
The circumstances, as portrayed by Miss Kitchen, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
is actually she'd returned home from work that evening, had a shower, and | 0:22:19 | 0:22:24 | |
it was while she was in the shower, she alleges, her keys were stolen | 0:22:24 | 0:22:30 | |
by an unknown intruder, and on looking out the window, | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
she saw that her car had gone. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:34 | |
An audacious theft, to say the least. However, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
the mystery surrounding the fate of her car was quickly cleaned up. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:42 | |
Subsequently, then, what happened was there was then | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
communications by Thames Valley Police with Direct Line, | 0:22:45 | 0:22:50 | |
in respect of her vehicle, | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
which had been involved in a single vehicle road traffic accident. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:56 | |
So, the thief had come into her house, | 0:22:56 | 0:22:57 | |
taken the keys while she was in the shower, and then crashed her car. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
Although no-one had been injured, and no other vehicle involved, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
the damage was significant. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
The claim was £4,000. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
Right from the start, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:09 | |
there was something questionable about the account of the keys. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:13 | |
You know, this young lady had come in, having a shower, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
as it was alleged, | 0:23:16 | 0:23:17 | |
and at the same time somebody had walked into her flat, removed | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
the keys from the dining room table, and subsequently stolen the vehicle. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:24 | |
The whole story did not connect. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
These concerns were only intensified when Direct Line liaised | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
with Thames Valley Police. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
Their investigation into the collision turned | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
Miss Kitchen's story on its head. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:36 | |
They genuinely believed that the driver of the vehicle | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
at the time of the accident was, in fact, her partner. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:45 | |
This information robbed her burglary story of any truth. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
The so-called thief that "stole" her car, then crashed it, | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
was her own boyfriend, who then fled the scene. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
The circumstances of the accident are, as yet, unknown, | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
but it would appear, and be extremely questionable, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:05 | |
as to why her partner left the scene of the incident. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:09 | |
The motivation for the stolen keys story was to protect her partner, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
and to ensure that she wasn't out of pocket when it came to the repairs. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:17 | |
It would appear from the circumstances, as we are led | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
to believe by the police, | 0:24:20 | 0:24:22 | |
that a payment would not have been honoured by Direct Line Group, | 0:24:22 | 0:24:27 | |
if the true facts had been made at the time of the claim. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
But the truth did come out, | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
and the police don't take kindly to being lied to. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
When we analyse what has occurred, | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
you've got Miss Kitchen making a false statement of claim, | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
which is fraud by false representation, | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
and then you have the distraction of the police services themselves. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:48 | |
Police resources are strapped at the best of times, and when they are | 0:24:48 | 0:24:52 | |
distracted investigating malicious complaints, | 0:24:52 | 0:24:56 | |
it is the genuine public that suffer, | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
and those who are generally in need of the emergency services. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
In view of this, the decision was taken to prosecute the claimant. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
Miss Kitchen appeared before the Crown Court in December last year. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
She was given a 12-month community order, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
and also ordered to undertake 150 hours' unpaid work. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:19 | |
It also entitles Miss Kitchen to be entered onto | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
the insurance fraud register. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
The industry as a whole are entitled to search that register when | 0:25:24 | 0:25:29 | |
considering risks when onboarding a policy holder. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:34 | |
In other words, it could affect her chances of getting insurance, | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
loans, or a mortgage. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
By concocting a key theft story, Miss Kitchen has paid a heavy price. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:44 | |
Honesty is always the best policy, and, you know, think before you act. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:49 | |
If your intentions are to deceit or defraud Direct Line Group, | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
then all I will say is - be warned. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:57 | |
We have the tactics, we have the methods, we have the skills, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
and the knowledge. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:02 | |
You will be identified, and you will be held to account. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
Earlier on, we examined a case where a simple speed camera investigation | 0:26:15 | 0:26:19 | |
led to the exposure of professional insurance fraudster, Jason Brown. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:24 | |
Brown owned a claims management company, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
called Optimum Claim Solutions, | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
that was proving to be involved in an array of fraudulent scams, | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
including claims for accidents that were totally imaginary. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
Things weren't looking good for Brown. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
He was already in custody at Greater Manchester Police, | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
when his solicitor turned up with arms full of evidence | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
he thought would help the case. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
A bundle of files were left at the front desk. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
Because these files were left, I looked at them. | 0:26:54 | 0:27:00 | |
And Graham didn't like what he saw. | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
One of the cases involved in this fraud was this same Mercedes | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
that had activated these speed cameras. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
This car had allegedly been involved in a collision, in Failsworth, | 0:27:09 | 0:27:14 | |
what we call a three-car shunt, and the Mercedes was the fault car. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
And the person recorded as being the driver of the Mercedes at | 0:27:18 | 0:27:20 | |
that time was the registered keeper. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
I knew, because I'd previously interviewed him, | 0:27:22 | 0:27:25 | |
that he'd never had possession of that car, so straightaway, | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
this accident was likely to be a fraudulent one. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
Another red flag was the high occupancy rate of the vehicles, | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
in particular the first car, which was a people carrier. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
It's supposed to have had seven people in it, and I think | 0:27:37 | 0:27:39 | |
there were seven claimants to the insurance company for | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
personal injuries in relation to that vehicle. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:44 | |
And there were another two personal injury claims | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
from the middle vehicle. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:48 | |
The more claims, the bigger the pay-out. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
As if this wasn't enough to discredit the claim, | 0:27:52 | 0:27:54 | |
there was a final nail in the coffin. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
As it transpired in the inquiry, | 0:27:57 | 0:27:59 | |
all three of those vehicles were insured by Jason Brown. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
Well, the whole job was clearly fraudulent. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:08 | |
The three-car collision in Failsworth was another | 0:28:10 | 0:28:13 | |
made-up accident, and, of course, | 0:28:13 | 0:28:15 | |
the seven people claiming to be injured were full of lies, too. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:18 | |
But it was just the tip of the iceberg. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:22 | |
Graham recovered another 400 files from | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
a residential address linked to Brown. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
The scale of the fraud was massive. Around £225,000. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:33 | |
Another scam that Brown was pulling off was duping multiple insurers | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
into paying for the same hire car to act as a replacement vehicle. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:40 | |
One car appeared on numerous claims. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:42 | |
That particular vehicle, on one occasion, | 0:28:44 | 0:28:47 | |
was allegedly out on hire to two people at the same time. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:50 | |
One of those, for the value, | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
or the value put in to the insurance company, was £40,000 plus. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
The evidence was mounting substantially against | 0:28:57 | 0:29:00 | |
Jason Brown, when Graham's investigations uncovered | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
yet another accident that looked likely to be fictitious, | 0:29:03 | 0:29:07 | |
this time involving two cars. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:09 | |
One of the drivers was a man called Billy Barnett, who had also | 0:29:12 | 0:29:16 | |
featured as a passenger in the previous Failsworth collision. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:20 | |
Billy Barnett was Jason Brown's step-son. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:22 | |
Graham managed to get hold of the original phone call between | 0:29:25 | 0:29:28 | |
Billy Barnett and the insurance company. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
The most striking thing about the phone call | 0:29:53 | 0:29:55 | |
is that it's not actually Barnett. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:57 | |
It's Brown, pretending to be Barnett. | 0:29:57 | 0:30:00 | |
My feelings are that he's just become over-confident | 0:30:00 | 0:30:03 | |
with the fact that he can get away with it, | 0:30:03 | 0:30:06 | |
so I think he felt brave in making this telephone conversation, | 0:30:06 | 0:30:09 | |
and felt he could ad lib his way through it, | 0:30:09 | 0:30:11 | |
but didn't think it through properly. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
Brown's arrogance also extended to the methods | 0:30:13 | 0:30:16 | |
he used to recruit people to take part in his scam, | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
revealed when Graham interviewed the alleged injured passengers. | 0:30:19 | 0:30:23 | |
The majority said that they were recruited whilst they were | 0:30:23 | 0:30:28 | |
out drinking in a pub, or stopped on the street. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:32 | |
What they were saying is, yeah, they did commit the fraud, | 0:30:32 | 0:30:35 | |
but they were recruited for it actively. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:39 | |
The person doing the recruiting was Jason Brown. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:42 | |
In the space of 12 months, Graham's work had mushroomed from | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
a case of speeding fines into fraud on an exceptional scale. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:50 | |
During the course of this investigation, | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
I arrested 24 suspects. | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
There were 154 statements taken, and around 1,000 exhibits. | 0:30:56 | 0:31:03 | |
The ringleader, Jason Brown, | 0:31:03 | 0:31:05 | |
and others who had played an active part, were brought to justice. | 0:31:05 | 0:31:09 | |
There was no arguing with the evidence against them. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:12 | |
Everybody that was charged with the fraud-related offences | 0:31:12 | 0:31:17 | |
pleaded guilty. | 0:31:17 | 0:31:18 | |
The judge came down hard on the ringleader of the £225,000 scam. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:23 | |
Jason Brown, the main man in the inquiry, | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
was sentenced to five years and two months. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:29 | |
And every penny he dishonestly made will have to be returned. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:32 | |
If he doesn't pay back the £200,000, | 0:31:34 | 0:31:37 | |
then that will ultimately result in him serving an extra term of | 0:31:37 | 0:31:41 | |
imprisonment, and the figure will remain with him for life. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:45 | |
It was a fitting end to Graham's 30-year police career. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:48 | |
He has since retired from the force. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:51 | |
It was ultimately going to be me last inquiry. | 0:31:51 | 0:31:54 | |
It didn't set out that way, when I first took the case, | 0:31:54 | 0:31:57 | |
because I didn't think it was going to turn into what it did turn into. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
Were it not for the speed fines, Jason Brown might have got away with | 0:32:00 | 0:32:04 | |
his scam for longer, but he didn't count on the determination | 0:32:04 | 0:32:08 | |
of Graham and his team to bring him to justice. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:10 | |
Now, everything is bigger in the US, nowhere more than in Texas, | 0:32:16 | 0:32:20 | |
the Lone Star State. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:22 | |
For Texan fraudsters, | 0:32:22 | 0:32:24 | |
it's not enough to simply fake a personal injury. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
They go further. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:29 | |
Much further. | 0:32:29 | 0:32:30 | |
A few years ago, a tragic motor accident claimed the life of | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
Clayton Daniels, husband of Molly Daniels. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
He died when his car burst into flames after leaving the road, | 0:32:48 | 0:32:52 | |
and plummeting down a cliff. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:54 | |
The fire was so intense | 0:32:57 | 0:32:59 | |
that Clayton's body was burned beyond recognition. | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
Molly and her two young children were left devastated. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:06 | |
Luckily, Clayton had taken out a 110,000 life insurance policy, | 0:33:10 | 0:33:15 | |
so Molly and the kids wouldn't have to struggle. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:18 | |
In fact, far from going to pieces, | 0:33:21 | 0:33:23 | |
Molly seemed to take the heartbreaking loss in her stride. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:26 | |
A Texas Ranger, who spoke to her, noted that she was strangely calm | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
throughout the interview, | 0:33:32 | 0:33:34 | |
and, only a few weeks later, it emerged that Molly | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
had embarked on a new relationship, with a man called Jake Gregg. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:42 | |
But the new life Molly had created was a fiction, | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
and the whole thing was about to crash and burn. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
Right from the start, there had been question marks about the accident. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:56 | |
No skid marks had been found on the road, | 0:33:56 | 0:33:58 | |
indicating that there had been no attempt to brake, | 0:33:58 | 0:34:01 | |
and the fire that destroyed the car had originated in the | 0:34:01 | 0:34:04 | |
driver's seat, not the fuel tank. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:07 | |
What's more, it had been accelerated by lighter fluid. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:10 | |
But what really brought the insurance claim to | 0:34:14 | 0:34:16 | |
a dead halt was evidence from the body in the car. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:19 | |
Investigators took one DNA sample from the corpse, | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
and one from Clayton Daniels' mother. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:26 | |
There should have been a match, but when the results came back, | 0:34:26 | 0:34:29 | |
there was a shock in store. | 0:34:29 | 0:34:31 | |
The body wasn't Daniels'. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:34 | |
The police went back to search the new couple's home, and found a | 0:34:36 | 0:34:39 | |
forged birth certificate and a fake driver's licence under the name | 0:34:39 | 0:34:43 | |
Jacob Alexander Gregg. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
So, who was Molly's new man? | 0:34:46 | 0:34:48 | |
Step forward...Clayton Daniels. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:53 | |
The fiery car accident had been staged to get an insurance pay-out. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:58 | |
Afterwards, Clayton had laid low, | 0:34:58 | 0:35:00 | |
and then re-emerged with a different hairdo and a new identity, | 0:35:00 | 0:35:05 | |
but that still left the question of the body in the car. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:08 | |
And here's where things took a much darker turn. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:15 | |
It turned out that Clayton had done the unthinkable - | 0:35:17 | 0:35:21 | |
he had dug up the grave of an 81-year-old woman, | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
called Charlotte Davis, who had been dead for six months. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:28 | |
He had then dressed her body in his clothes, placed her in the car, | 0:35:28 | 0:35:31 | |
set it alight, and then pushed it off the edge of the cliff. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:35 | |
When police investigated Clayton further, | 0:35:38 | 0:35:40 | |
it emerged that he was also wanted for skipping bail | 0:35:40 | 0:35:43 | |
after pleading guilty to other serious crimes. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
Molly revealed her true colours | 0:35:48 | 0:35:49 | |
when she tried to explain why they targeted Charlotte. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:53 | |
According to her, "We felt, because she was older, | 0:35:53 | 0:35:56 | |
"there would not be much family impact, if any." | 0:35:56 | 0:35:58 | |
But the jury totally disagreed when the case went to trial. | 0:36:01 | 0:36:05 | |
They awarded Molly the maximum sentence for her crimes, | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
20 years behind bars. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:13 | |
Clayton also received 20 years for insurance fraud, 15 years for arson, | 0:36:13 | 0:36:17 | |
and ten for desecration of a cemetery, to be served concurrently. | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
Coming home to find out that you've been broken into | 0:36:29 | 0:36:31 | |
is always distressing. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:33 | |
It is a horrible feeling, knowing someone has been inside your house. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
Taking out home insurance helps soften the blow, | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
in case of a theft, | 0:36:40 | 0:36:41 | |
and gives us the peace of mind that, if we're broken into, | 0:36:41 | 0:36:44 | |
we'll be reimbursed financially, or any stolen items replaced. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:48 | |
In October 2014, Lloyds Banking Group received a call from | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
a customer called Paul Monday, | 0:36:55 | 0:36:57 | |
who'd taken out contents insurance with them back in 2009. | 0:36:57 | 0:37:02 | |
Paul was calling to let them know about a burglary at his property. | 0:37:02 | 0:37:05 | |
David Berry, the technical fraud manager | 0:37:17 | 0:37:19 | |
at Lloyds Banking Group was involved with the case. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
When we first had the claim presented to us | 0:37:24 | 0:37:26 | |
everything looked perfectly in order, | 0:37:26 | 0:37:28 | |
everything appeared to be genuinely stated, so to all intents | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
and purposes, nothing at all looked wrong with the claim. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
So, basically, the sort of things you'd expect to find | 0:38:03 | 0:38:06 | |
in a garden shed. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:08 | |
However, there was one unusual item on the list of what was taken. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
Fair enough, not an everyday piece of sports equipment, | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
but Paul Monday was claiming he had a monoski | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
nicked from the back of his shed. | 0:38:28 | 0:38:29 | |
Paul Monday was a happy customer. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
All his stolen tools would be covered | 0:38:52 | 0:38:54 | |
and replaced with brand-new ones. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:57 | |
However a few weeks later the team informed him | 0:38:57 | 0:39:00 | |
that his monoski was not covered, | 0:39:00 | 0:39:02 | |
as it needed a specialist sporting equipment policy | 0:39:02 | 0:39:06 | |
and it was then that the tide started to turn. | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
Monday suddenly seemed to remember a further item that had been | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
stolen from his shed - a drill. | 0:39:12 | 0:39:15 | |
When we explained that we couldn't cover the monoski, | 0:39:15 | 0:39:18 | |
the customer asked us to consider the claim for the drill | 0:39:18 | 0:39:21 | |
and explained, when we asked him why he hadn't told us | 0:39:21 | 0:39:23 | |
about the drill previously, that he believed he'd already reached | 0:39:23 | 0:39:26 | |
the limit of cover when actually he hadn't. | 0:39:26 | 0:39:29 | |
It seemed plausible enough so the team asked Monday whether | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
he had anything to prove his ownership of the drill | 0:39:32 | 0:39:35 | |
and he responded by supplying a photo. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
But suspicions had been roused | 0:39:39 | 0:39:41 | |
and the team bored down into the detail of the image of the drill. | 0:39:41 | 0:39:46 | |
EXIF data or property data held on digital images | 0:39:46 | 0:39:49 | |
is very simple to access. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
You click on the properties of the digital image and it will | 0:39:52 | 0:39:56 | |
provide you with information such as the date on which the photo | 0:39:56 | 0:40:00 | |
was taken, it will provide you with a time to the actual second, | 0:40:00 | 0:40:03 | |
some of them will actually even provide you with the GPS | 0:40:03 | 0:40:06 | |
location of where the photo was taken, as well. | 0:40:06 | 0:40:08 | |
What they found out from analysing Paul Monday's drill photo | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
opened up a massive hole in his story. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:16 | |
It was absolutely key. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:20 | |
It told us that the photograph had been presented and taken | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
after the item was said to have been stolen. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:27 | |
So, miraculously, Monday had managed to snap a shot of his drill | 0:40:27 | 0:40:31 | |
after the burglary. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:32 | |
The team confronted him with this evidence. | 0:40:32 | 0:40:36 | |
The customer wasn't immediately able to explain that but after | 0:40:36 | 0:40:39 | |
some further discussion he did actually admit to us that he'd | 0:40:39 | 0:40:43 | |
taken a standard image from the internet, he'd presented it to us | 0:40:43 | 0:40:48 | |
as the item that he had claimed for and he hadn't actually | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
considered what the consequences of that might have been. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:54 | |
And the consequences were really bad for this particular scammer. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:58 | |
We explained to the customer that he had committed fraud in terms | 0:40:58 | 0:41:02 | |
of the conditions of the policy and that the repercussion of that | 0:41:02 | 0:41:06 | |
would mean that not only would we have to cancel the policy | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
but we'd also have to seek the money back for sums we had paid | 0:41:09 | 0:41:14 | |
for the replacement of the items that he'd already received. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
Paul Monday was less than impressed. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:19 | |
The customer complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service | 0:41:19 | 0:41:24 | |
and, in fact, the Ombudsman, on looking at all of the facts | 0:41:24 | 0:41:27 | |
presented by both the customer | 0:41:27 | 0:41:28 | |
and ourselves in terms of how we reach that decision, concluded that | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
we had actually made a fair decision and that the claim shouldn't stand. | 0:41:32 | 0:41:36 | |
Monday's objections had been overruled and he was instructed | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
to play nearly £1,500 back to Lloyds - | 0:41:39 | 0:41:42 | |
the value of all the new tools he had received. | 0:41:42 | 0:41:45 | |
But it didn't end there. | 0:41:46 | 0:41:48 | |
The case was referred to the City of London police's | 0:41:48 | 0:41:52 | |
Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department | 0:41:52 | 0:41:54 | |
and Monday found himself in front of a magistrates' court. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:58 | |
He pleaded guilty in court to charges | 0:41:58 | 0:42:00 | |
of fraud by false representation and as a result of that | 0:42:00 | 0:42:05 | |
he received a 12-month conditional discharge. | 0:42:05 | 0:42:07 | |
It may have been that Paul Monday's shed had genuinely been broken into, | 0:42:07 | 0:42:11 | |
but by lying to his insurers and providing false evidence | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
he's ended up owing them nearly £1,500 | 0:42:15 | 0:42:18 | |
and has a permanent criminal record to boot. | 0:42:18 | 0:42:22 | |
Nobody likes paying more than we have to for everyday services, | 0:42:31 | 0:42:35 | |
but this is exactly what's happening with insurance fraud. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
Scammers and conmen are swindling their way to pay-outs | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
that they don't deserve. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:42 | |
The knock-on effect is that the extra costs result in ever | 0:42:42 | 0:42:45 | |
increasing premiums. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:47 | |
We're getting hit in the pocket and it's not just organised | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
criminal gangs to blame. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:51 | |
Exaggerated household claims also take their toll. | 0:42:51 | 0:42:55 | |
But instead of getting away with it, | 0:42:55 | 0:42:57 | |
more and more of these fraudsters are being Claimed And Shamed. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:01 |