Pet owner sentenced for £13,500 fraud

A woman in Northern Ireland has been sentenced to 240 hours community service after pleading guilty to five counts of insurance fraud totalling more than £13,500.

Susan Mary McGrattan, 34, admitted making false insurance claims amounting to £13,668.50 for kennelling her three pet dogs and cats while work was carried out to repair the foundations of her property.

McGrattan told her insurer Zurich that her landlord, who she was renting alternative accommodation from, would not allow pets to be kept in the other rental property.

But Zurich’s fraud investigation team received a tip off that the entire claim for kennelling the pets was fraudulent and that they had stayed with McGrattan in her alternative accommodation.

In sentencing McGrattan, Judge David Smyth QC said McGrattan had more than simply exaggerated her insurance claim and she had repeatedly requested money from Zurich for housing her cats and dogs.

Zurich is pursuing McGrattan for the remaining cost of her original home insurance claim, plus the cost of kennelling and legal costs, amounting to almost £141,000, claiming that the fraudulent part of her claim may breach the entire policy.