Jailed PI broker ordered to repay victims £50k

A jailed broker who stole more than £90,000 from his clients has been ordered to repay more than £50,000, leaving his victims out of pocket.

The broker, Clive Hesketh, was given six months to repay £54,319 at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Bolton Crown Court in December.

The money will be taken from his assets. If he cannot pay then he faces up to two extra years in prison on top of his current three-year sentence.

Hesketh, 47, headed up Lakeland Technologies, which traded as Pinnacle Insurance Services, based in Market Street, Bury. Pinnacle sold solicitors’ professional indemnity (PI) insurance and employers’ liability insurance to local firms.

Hesketh fleeced businesses between January 2010 and October 2010 by issuing false PI policies.

Hesketh set up monthly credit agreements with his clients, gave them fake policy certificates and pocketed the cash to pay off debt in his business.

He had named Travelers Insurance on some of the fraudulent documents, although the insurer has issued a statement confirming it had nothing to do with the fraud.

His fraud was discovered when one of Pinnacle’s clients contacted their insurer in June 2011 and was told their policy was fake.

Hesketh pleaded guilty to 11 counts of false representation when he appeared before Bury magistrates on 15 August last year.

In September last year he was sentenced to three years in prison.

A social club he defrauded will get all its premiums back, but the conned law firms will only get half their money back.