Insurance investigators from Miller Fisher have secured the conviction of six men and a woman after unravelling an elaborate fraud involving £130,000 of false motor claims.
The team also prevented the fraud gang from claiming a further £120,000, had other motor claims succeeded.
The investigation took John McCann and Duncan Swallow more than four months to complete and involved claims submitted to 11 insurers. McCann said: “This shows that a fraud case properly presented to the police can yield encouraging results.”
Isleworth Crown Court sentenced two of the gang to substantial jail terms and is currently considering a confiscation order against the gang to recover proceeds of their crime.
Ring leader Salaheddin al-Rifai, who pleaded guilty to six counts of insurance fraud, received 27 months imprisonment to run concurrently with a nine-month sentence for housing benefit fraud. His wife, Maureen Ferchichi, received a two-year probation order.
His brother, Mohammed al-Rifai, pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud and received a 33-month prison sentence. A third brother, Belal, was fined £2,500 while a fourth, Adeep, who pleaded guilty to one count of fraud is awaiting sentence while he undergoes medical reports.
Another gang member, Mazen Hamden, was fined £6,000 for admitting three counts of fraud and a sixth, Farhan al-Husbani was fined £1,500 for one count of fraud. An eighth suspect failed to answer bail and has fled to Jordan.
