RSA claims specialist faces jail for defrauding his company

A former RSA claims specialist and an accomplice are facing jail after defrauding RSA of nearly £280,000 over a four-year period.

Former RSA claims specialist Kevin Macey, 49, of Pennington Way in Fareham, was sentenced to three years and four months’ imprisonment for one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of money laundering for his part in the fraud.

Debbie Starkings, 57, of Cupnor Road, Portsmouth was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and was handed a 20-day community order for one count of theft and one count of money laundering.

Both were sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court on 8 September after pleading guilty to a number of fraud offences.

The sentencing follows an investigation by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).

Personal claims specialist Macey colluded with Starkings between early 2012 to July 2016 to make false claims against a buildings and contents policy that Starkings held with RSA.

Macey’s role enabled him to agree to claims made by policyholders, which he did up until his voluntary redundancy on 31 July 2016.

RSA’s internal controls highlighted anomalies with Macey‘s handing of a number of claims, prompting an internal investigation. RSA referred the case to IFED after it found that Starkings was the recipient of the payments.

The IFED investigation found Macey had helped Starkings make five claims over two years which amounted to over £200,000. Macey then started to make false claims against other people’s policies and then would send the money for those claims to Starkings’s bank account. Overall he processed fraudulent claims for Starkings which amounted to £279,641.

City of London Police financial investigator Simon Styles, who led the investigation for IFED, said: “Macey abused the position he had been put in by RSA and took complete advantage of his customers, using their details to help him collude with Starkings.

“Starkings was equally complicit in this fraud and her greed meant she went on to submit multiple false claims.”

RSA head of financial crime and counter-fraud John Beadle added: “RSA have a zero tolerance attitude towards any dishonesty involving our staff. Once internal controls highlighted the activities of Macey and Starkings, we had no hesitation in reporting the matter to IFED in order that both could be brought to justice.”