A disc jockey from Newcastle who tried to bully and abuse insurance workers into processing his bogus claims will be behind bars for nearly two years.
Nolan Cormac Blakey, 39, was sentenced to 22 months of imprisonment on April 28. He pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud by false representation and three counts of sending malicious communications in September 2016.
According to the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), Blakey submitted a series of fraudulent insurance claims from June to November 2015 for fake injuries and loss of earnings.
The IFED was tapped to investigate Blakey after he submitted a claim to
Zurich for a damaged windscreen on his car. He also made further claims for loss of earning as he was unable to drive.
However, receipts submitted as proof of earnings were handwritten and Blakey couldn’t provide simple details of where or when he was supposed to have performed as a DJ to earn the money he was claiming.
Authorities later discovered that Blakey had other fraudulent claims with insurers including
Aviva and
QBE. He sought compensation for fake injuries caused by an exploding cooker, an overheating mobile phone charger and by pushing a glass door of a restaurant.
In his attempt to get his claims quickly resolved, Blakey became “extremely abusive” during phone conversations with many insurance company call handlers, the IFED said. The insurers told the police unit that Blakey bullied their call handlers into accepting the claims without further question.
The IFED noted that Blakey was so abusive in some of the calls that it led police officers to investigate him for malicious communications.
Blakey was arrested in January 2016 and denied committing fraud and being aggressive and abusive when dealing with insurance companies.
“Blakey manipulated the insurance system, not realising the industry works closely with the Police to identify and root out fraudsters,” said IFED detective constable Kevin Hughes.
“Resorting to bullying and abusing insurance company staff as he attempted to speed up his claims illustrates the lengths and methods he was willing to use to cheat the insurance system,” he added.
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