‘Bishop’ in Range Rover ran £12k crash for cash con
A seLF- sTYLeD bishop who faked car crashes to claim thousands of pounds from insurance firms was jailed yesterday.
Charles motondo impersonated a parishioner to fabricate one claim.
The 40-year-old, who preached high-octane sermons at three-hour sunday services at his church in Leeds, was arrested after insurers became suspicious about £12,000 of claims he made over ‘crashes’ involving his Range Rover.
Fraud specialists at City of London police, who took up the investigation, found he had impersonated the parishioner, whom he had earlier helped to buy a car.
Yesterday motondo, who pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud, was sentenced to ten months in prison. Leeds Crown Court heard he opened insurance policies in 2016 using two false names. He then deceived Aviva Insurance and mulsanne Insurance. The preacher, who moved to the UK from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2005, was caught when insurance company First Central found the damage to his Range Rover did not match the alleged crash.
motondo used both his own and his partner’s bank accounts to access the cash claimed for crashes, the court was told.
Police discovered motondo, who receives Universal Credit, had contacted First Central Insurance and fraudulently bought a policy using the details of a parishioner. A few days later he called the insurers, pretending to be the policy holder, and said he had crashed his Vauxhall Corsa into a parked Range Rover.
City of London Police spokesman said: ‘The person whose details motondo had used for this fake claim told us the accident never took place and that the car wasn’t ever insured. They also revealed that motondo had helped them buy their car.’
Prosecutor Ian Hudson said: ‘[The insurance company realised] the insurance policies had been taken out on the same day. The claim was not paid.’
A forensic engineer said due to the height difference of the two vehicles, the Corsa could not have caused the alleged damage to the Range Rover. motondo had a shop theft on his criminal record but was otherwise of ‘impeccable’ character, defence solicitor michael Collins told the court. He added: ‘He is a pastor. He has told me of his embarrassment and shame at his conduct and has genuine remorse.’