Woman jailed for £50k travel and home insurance scam

A woman who reported to three different police forces that she had been robbed of cash, electronics and designer items in an attempt to get £50,000 from bogus travel and home insurance claims has today been jailed.

Anita Debnath made reports to police in London, Leeds and Dublin before submitting a total of 12 identical claims to 11 insurers for cash and personal items, namely an Asus laptop, Chloé handbag, Louis Vuitton purse, BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Motorola Aura.

Her deception was exposed when an insurer identified the claims Debnath submitted to them as fraudulent and passed them onto the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).

In August, IFED detectives arrested Debnath at her flat on Haymarket in London. A search of her home revealed insurance claims documents, an Asus laptop and the police reports supplied to the insurers.

During the course of their investigation, the detectives liaised with the three police forces Debnath had reported robberies to and found no evidence of the crimes having ever happened.

Debnath subsequently pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud by false representation.

Earlier today at the Old Bailey she was sentenced to two years and three months in prison.

DC Cynthia Rushie, who led IFED’s investigation, said: “In a bid to avoid detection, Debnath spread her reports out across two countries, three police forces and 11 insurers.

“Unfortunately for her the new reality for fraudsters is that IFED is working in alliance with insurers and police forces to clamp down on people who still think they can make easy money at someone else’s expense, with little or no risk of ever being brought to justice.”

Debnath became one of the first women to be convicted of cyber stalking in 2006, when she was jailed for four years after hacking into the email account of Chay Ankers and setting up a gay website in his name after a one-night stand.