Jail for travel insurance fraudster

A man who submitted a receipt for a frying pan as evidence for a £2,000 travel insurance fraud has been jailed.

Ayodele Salak had previously admitted to making a false claim for four mobile phones, two laptops and a bundle of clothes, all supposedly kept in a small bag that he said were stolen while he was travelling to Heathrow Airport.

Believing the claim to be fraudulent, Salako’s insurer referred the claim to the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), based at the City of London Police.

Shortly after, IFED detectives arrested the 28-year-old at his home in central London.

Salako could not prove he had ever owned a majority of the items he’d claimed for – submitting a number of invalid receipts, including one for a frying pan. He also could not verify he had a flight booked on the day he reported the theft had occurred and even gave detectives a different account of how the items were stolen to the one he gave the insurer.

Salako was charged with fraud by false representation and pleaded guilty at City of London Magistrates’ Court. He was sentenced to six weeks in prison at the same court.

IFED head DCI Dave Wood said: “Insurance fraud in all its forms will not be tolerated, wherever it has been committed.

“There is still a public perception that making bogus claims to insurance companies about stolen property, accidents or ill-health is somehow acceptable. IFED detectives making arrests in London and across England and Wales is evidence of how committed we are to changing this culture.”

IFED was set up with funding from the insurance industry to combat an area of criminality valued at £3bn per year, working out at £50 per policy holder.