Fraudsters used stolen IDs to con insurance firms
Both jailed after making thousands from scam
TWO fraudsters conned car insurance companies out of thousands of pounds using stolen identities and forged personal information.
Salman Gull, 21 and Akbar Zaman, 39, both provided fraudulent details to different companies in order to gain better premiums on car insurance and finance loans over two and a half years.
Gull, of Chorlton, identified himself on 14 policy applications as the beneficiary of the primary account holder, Manchester Crown Court heard.
On each application, mostly to companies Churchill Insurance and Endsleigh Insurance, Gull created either fictitious names, addresses and date of births or used details of real life people to carry out the frauds.
He would then add himself on as a ‘named driver’ and state he was some relation to the primary driver.
Zaman, who was later found to be in Gull’s phone under the name ‘Aki Insurance,’ acted as an insurance agent, prosecutors said.
He went on to make a number of applications for finance through different companies, also under fictitious or stolen identities.
In total, the risk of loss Zaman, of Longsight, posed was valued at £119,200, the court heard. Both men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and were jailed.
Prosecutor Andrew Smith told the court that each car insurance policy was arranged either online or over the phone.
The fraudulent misrepresentations included fictitious details, ‘fronting’ addresses and identified individuals’ details with reference to their previous home address, none of whom knew anything about the theft, use of their identity and personal details, it was said.
“On the 14 different policies, Gull was clearly using the insured vehicles and benefiting from insurance cover at significantly reduced premium levels; the majority of which were in fact paid through fraudulent accounts,” Mr Smith said.
Gull, of Chorlton was insured to drive six cars, including an Audi S3 and BMW, valued collectively at over £130,000.
The cost of the actual insurance policies obtained amounted to £12,615.33 plus another policy which is yet to be confirmed.
Officers attended address on April 30 2019 and arrested him after finding his number in Gull’s phone.
In police interviews both Gull and Zaman denied the allegations and instead claimed their details were being used by someone else.
Mitigating for Gull, Matthew Curtis said: “He wasn’t the principal driver, he was the beneficiary.
“The defendant was relying on some form of instruction on how best to obtain a policy at the best advantaged price to him.
“He had been released under investigation at the time.”
Mitigating for Zaman, Chudi Grant said: “Leading up to that time in his life he had gone through the death of his father and was the primary carer for his elderly mother.
“He had time on his hands during that time whilst he was not working, he was isolated from others.
“This is not in any way an excuse, but explains why he came to commit these offences.”
Sentencing, Judge Michael Leeming told Zaman: “This was planned, premeditated and sophisticated offending. Those people whose identities have been stolen were bedevilled by you - the impact was high.”
Zaman, of Elsdon Road, was jailed for 40 months, and Gull, of Wilbraham Road, was jailed for 27 months.