Burglary victim altered report in insurance fraud
A BURGLARY victim altered a police report when she realised that she’d given her insurers the wrong times for the break-in.
Helen Armstrong discovered her dead daughter’s ashes strewn over a bed and her sons’ belongings worth thousands missing.
She was moving into the Rastrick property and took out a home insurance policy the same day.
But when the 51-year-old realised that the times of the raid in the crime report didn’t match the information given to her insurers, she altered them.
She escaped punishment after Kirklees magistrates heard how she acted out of desperation after fleeing a controlling marriage.
Her solicitor Carl Kingsley said: “This is a lady who has lost everything.”
Armstrong pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation.
Prosecutor Emily Jenkings said that on July 14, 2017, Armstrong took out a home insurance policy with the Co-op.
This was obtained online at 4.09pm following a quote through Compare the Market. The same day Armstrong reported that she had been burgled and police attended at her home at 6.30pm.
Miss Jenkings said: “The defendant said she’d left home for work at 7am and then discovered that the house had been burgled just before 4pm when she returned to the house. On July 20 the Co-op received a phone call from the defendant registering a claim against her home insurance policy.”
The claim application for £4,000 worth of stolen goods, including iPads and a PlayStation 4, was opened by the insurers and the mother-of-three emailed them the police crime report.
Miss Jenkings told magistrates: “It was noticed by the Co-op that the commencement time for the burglary had been altered in blue ink over black writing.”
Armstrong had changed the report to say that the burglary had taken place between 7am and 6pm and not between 7am and 4pm as originally stated. She did this because the original crime report contradicted her fraudulent claim as it proved that she actually bought the insurance policy after she reported the burglary.
The claim was rejected and she was investigated for fraud. Armstrong initially denied any wrongdoing.
She said that her friend advised her to purchase an insurance policy and she had taken it out before returning home to discover that she had been burgled.
But she declined to give her friend’s details and claimed she had no idea how the document came to be altered.
Armstrong was due to stand trial at the Huddersfield court but changed her plea to guilty on the day of the hearing.
Carl Kingsley, mitigating, explained that his client was married for 32 years but her husband was “narcissistic and controlling.” He said: “On Mother’s Day her husband told her he no longer loved her, she wasn’t worth a card or a present and he wanted her out of the house. She couldn’t leave because the eldest of her two sons was taking exams and she didn’t want to uproot him.
“Then she obtained a lease for the house subject to these proceedings and secretly moved property from the house she shared with her husband to the house she’d leased.
“The money she had was spent buying electrical items for the two boys so they’d be settled.”
On the day of the break-in Armstrong was still moving property in and her friend arrived and asked her if she had home insurance, Mr Kingsley said.
When she admitted she didn’t, the friend helped her get a quote for £7 per month.
Armstrong sadly lost her daughter at childbirth and her ashes were among the property moved into the accommodation, Mr Kingsley said.
He told magistrates: “She discovered that she had been burgled and all of the children’s items she’d bought were taken. She’s called police - she wasn’t wearing a watch - and gave this account. It seems she’s got the times wrong as to when she’s discovered this and realised when the crime report came back that 7am to 4pm wouldn’t have been right. Rather than say to police this isn’t right she altered the document.”
Magistrates gave the print shop worker a 12 month conditional discharge.
Bench chairwoman Kathryn Beney told her: “This was not motivated by greed but to cover losses in a genuine burglary so we feel there’s lesser culpability.
“The victim is the insurance company but the claim was not paid out. You are a lady of previous good character and we’ve heard at the time of the offence you were under considerable distress.” Armstrong still has to pay the full prosecution costs of £320 and £20 victim surcharge.
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