Man sentenced after CCTV exposes fake ‘slip and trip’ claims

A man has been sentenced after CCTV footage exposed his attempts to make two fraudulent ‘slip and trip’ claims at shops in North Yorkshire.

Asad Khan was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court on 31 January to 10 months imprisonment suspended for 18 months.  He also received 60 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £940 in compensation costs.

Two weeks earlier, at the same court, he pleaded guilty to one count of fraud by false representation and a further count was taken into consideration.

Detective constable Adam Maskell, who led the investigation for the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), said: “While the CCTV exposed Khan and showed how ridiculous his injury claims were, the severity of these types of ‘slip and trip’ claims shouldn’t be understated.”

“As this case shows, irrespective of how insurance fraud is committed and on what scale, it will not be tolerated by IFED and the insurance industry, and perpetrators will be punished.”

The City of London Police’s IFED began investigating Khan after receiving referrals from Allianz Insurance and Covea Insurance.

In June 2016, Khan submitted a claim to Allianz, stating that he’d been shopping at a discount store and slipped on a spillage in one of the aisles, resulting in injuries to his back, leg and hand.

A year later, in July 2017, Khan submitted a ‘slip and trip’ claim to Covea and said he’d slipped on some water in a pet shop.

In both incidents, CCTV showed that Khan had clearly fallen in a deliberate and controlled manner, and walked out displaying no signs of any injuries.

James Burge, fraud manager at Allianz Insurance, said: “This case demonstrates that fraudsters will go to drastic lengths to get what they want. Fortunately our customer had CCTV footage which could clearly challenge and prove that the claims made by Khan were dishonest.”

“It’s sad that people will still go to great efforts for their own financial gain, potentially damaging a business’ reputation in their bid to get compensation. It’s important insurance companies and IFED continue to work together to protect genuine customers and fight fraud. Hopefully cases like this will make people think twice about committing fraud in the future.”

Mark Dugdale