Family of fraudsters sentenced for £37,000 of fake claims

Three members of one family have been sentenced for money laundering offences after making over £37,000 worth of fake insurance claims.

Alexis Brasil, 37, from Walsall used a number of aliases between October 2013 and July 2016 to make eight fraudulent claims. He was sentenced back in November 2017 to two years and eight months after pleading guilty to 17 counts of fraud and money laundering.

On 22 February 2018, his mother, Aziz Begum was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Also, Brasil’s nephew, Mohammed Saqib Ali was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years with 120 hours’ unpaid work.

Having made one claim with Aviva in October 2013 for £3,409, Brasil attempted to make an identical claim through another Aviva policy for the same amount on the same day. However, Aviva identified this duplication and the second claim was unsuccessful.

He then made another identical claim on a Royal Sun Alliance (RSA) policy a month later. Aviva contacted RSA and established that the claim had been made using identical receipts to those provided to Aviva.

Brasil changed his name on multiple occasions, both officially via deed poll and unofficially.

IFED found that Brasil had used six aliases to take out insurance policies and make fraudulent claims with Aviva over a three-year period.

As a result of two Aviva policies set up by Brasil, Begum and Ali both had payments made into their bank accounts. One resulted in a payout of £21,898 which was paid into a bank account registered to Brasil’s nephew, Mohammed Saqib Ali.

Another successful claim was made and a total of £12,025 was paid out in three separate payments to two bank accounts controlled by Brasil’s mother, Begum.

Following an investigation with help from West Midlands Police, IFED tracked Brasil to Belfast in February 2017 and arrested him one month later.

IFED detective constable, Lloyd Haywood said: “Brasil’s audacious crimes were complex but not unique - we see similar cases to this one every day.

“Despite Brasil’s attempts to evade Police with multiple identities and continue to commit fraud, we were able to track him down and put a stop to his deception.

“We have shown that IFED will pursue and bring to justice those who position themselves outside of the UK in a bid to evade law enforcement.

“The jury had a difficult job to convict Ali and Begum and their patience and attention to detail are appreciated.

“IFED will continue to prevent their crimes whilst abroad and look to confiscate their assets to compensate victims.”

Tom Gardiner, head of fraud at Aviva UK Insurance said: “Despite Mr Brasil going to great lengths to disguise his serial frauds and avoid capture, including changing his identity, our team worked relentlessly with IFED to bring him to justice.

“As this case shows, insurers have very effective mechanisms in place for sharing intelligence and working with the police, so if you do commit fraud it’s now very likely that you will be caught.”

Adele Sumner, who is head of fraud intelligence & strategic development in RSA’s counter-fraud unit, said: “Insurance companies do exchange information to prevent this type of fraud, and fraudsters need to realise that the insurers and IFED are working together to bring criminals to justice, to protect honest customers and to prevent the public bearing the brunt of fraudulent insurance claims.”