Detective Chief Inspector Edelle Michaels (picture) has been appointed as the new head of the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), succeeding DCI Andy Fyfe.
According to a statement from the London Police, Michaels has over 27 years of experience as a police officer and has worked in the City of London Police’s Uniformed Policing Directorate for the past two and a half years. Prior to that, her background was as a detective working in fraud, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and also the Major Crime Unit, where, as a Senior Investigating Officer (SIO), she dealt with reactive and proactive investigations.
She takes over the leadership of the IFED team from Fyfe, who has since taken on a position within the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau. Fyfe took the reins of IFED in 2017.
The IFED said that since its inception in 2012, it has now secured over 500 convictions. Some of the convictions this year include a man who impersonated his female partner to make a £1 million fake death claim, as well as a married couple who used their children to inflate a car accident claim.
“The unit’s hard work has ensured that those who endangered the public by engaging in insurance fraud have faced serious consequences, and I will be doing my utmost to ensure this continues, as well as scoping for proactive opportunities,” Michaels said.
“The IFED has recently agreed three more years of funding and we are looking forward to working with our stakeholders in the insurance industry in meeting the challenges that will present themselves in that time.”
