A former employee of insurance giants AXA is facing jail after multiple acts of claims fraud were uncovered by investigators.
AXA, one of the UK’s largest insurance companies who are involved in personal injury and credit hire claims worth millions of pounds each year, discovered that the employee, a call handler at the company from 2015 to 2017, was adding additional costs to legitimate claims and siphoning off the additional costs to keep himself.
The claims handler, Jack Burton, came to the attention of the authorities in 2017 when rival insurance firm Aviva noticed suspect activity that was likely to be fraudulent, involving insurance claims made against a policy in his name and through an additional company that he had links with.
Upon further investigation, it was found that Burton, 27, had also made fraudulent claims against polices with RSA, Direct Line and AXA. Between December 2016 and April 2017, he made seven claims against policies for loss, damage or theft to a variety of items, including a MacBook laptop and a Canon camera. He also fraudulently manipulated 10 claims by adding extra car hire services the customer did not need and had never requested. The subsequent payments for these ‘phantom’ services were then paid into his own bank account, which Burton spent on electrical goods, hiring luxury cars, expensive hotels in Manchester and London, visits to places such as Alton Towers and Madame Tussauds.
After his arrest in November 2017, Burton admitted all offences put to him and said he had been heavily in debt and was struggling to cope financially. Appearing recently at Manchester Crown Court, he admitted to making nine fraudulent claims and to stealing around £7,800. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Following the case, Tom Wilson, counter fraud manager at AXA Insurance, said:
“Burton’s fraudulent activities were prolific, taking advantage of his employment at AXA as well as a number of other insurers.”
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