Surrey businessmen fail to get sentences suspended after being jailed for selling fake British Gas insurance policies
Two Surrey businessmen who were locked up for conning innocent customers into shelling out for bogus British Gas insurance policies today lost their Court of Appeal bids for freedom.
John Benjamin Annett, of The Ridgeway, Croydon, was jailed for 18 months, and Jay Firmager, of Whytecliffe Road, Purley, for 15 months for their roles at Croydon Crown Court in May.
Annett, 30, admitted conspiracy to make a gain by false representation, while Firmager, 31, was acquitted of the overall conspiracy, but found guilty by a jury of 12 individual counts of fraud.
Annett was a director of the telesales company which was involved in the scam, which was said to have resulted in losses of up to £87,000.
The individual counts in which Firmager was involved accounted for only about £2,000 of that.
Today, they argued that their sentences were too long and should have been suspended, but saw their cases rejected by top judges, Lord Justice Lloyd Jones, Mr Justice Coulson and Mr Justice Holroyde.
“In our view, not only is there no compelling reason to suspend the sentences, we consider that the judge was right not to do so,” said Mr Justice Holroyde.
“This was a sophisticated and well-planned fraud, in which unwitting members of the public paid out sums in good faith for non-existent insurance policies.
“The fraud lasted some time and only came to an end because of a British Gas investigation.
“These were not cases for a suspended sentence.”
The appeals were dismissed.
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