A man previously jailed for orchestrating a series of fraudulent motor insurance claims has been ordered to pay back £210,000, following proceedings initiated by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).
The Inner London Crown Court granted the confiscation order against 38-year-old Hamid Sediqi last week, mandating him to repay the sum within three months. The order comprises a penthouse apartment in Gran Canaria and a Mazda RX7, which were acquired by Sediqi using proceeds from his fraudulent activities.
Sediqi – also known by the aliases Hamid Sharifi, Najib Sharifi, and Kevin Heartbreak – was sentenced to four years in prison in May 2021 after he posed as the director of a legitimate claims management company and orchestrated fraudulent motor insurance claims.
As part of his fake director scheme, Sediqi pocketed £26,070 in fees for supposedly referring claims to a solicitors firm, in addition to the compensation payments received by a bank account that investigators traced back to him. He is estimated to have amassed £52,472 from that modus operandi.
Also, an investigation conducted by IFED with Aviva revealed Sediqi’s involvement in 62 fraudulent motor insurance claims.
Joined by two accomplices, it was found that Sediqi opened bank accounts using stolen IDs or fabricated details to obtain insurance policies with the major insurer. He is said to have obtained £137,596 from the trio’s fraudulent operations.
“Sediqi managed to fraudulently accrue hundreds of thousands of pounds by targeting solicitors and insurance companies, and stealing the identities of companies and members of the public,” said Tom Hill, detective chief inspector from the IFED.
During the confiscation proceedings, the court determined that Sediqi had earned £400,368 from his criminal activities, with £210,000 in assets available for restitution. IFED said it will revisit the outstanding amount in the future.
“This result means that Sediqi will not be able to benefit any further from the money he earned through criminal activity, and shows that IFED has the ability to recover criminal assets and return them to victims of insurance fraud,” Hill said further.
Failure to comply with the confiscation order will result in an additional five years of imprisonment for Sediqi, who previously received a serious crime prevention order following his release from prison in March.
“This confiscation order is an important result, not just for Aviva, but for the wider insurance industry, and should serve notice to career fraudsters that the money they have fraudulently stolen from insurers and their customers can – and will – be clawed back,” said Carl Mather, special investigations unit manager at Aviva.
Aviva had supported IFED’s investigation and taken steps to secure the confiscation order against the serial fraudster, according to Mather.
“In granting it, the court has acknowledged the impact of insurance fraud on the general public,” he added.
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