A court has granted a confiscation order against a man who was jailed in 2021 after he cloned a claims management company and orchestrated over 60 fraudulent motor insurance claims.
Hamid Sediqi, 38, of Harrow, also known as Hamid Sharifi, Najib Sharifi and Kevin Heartbreak, was given three months to pay £210,000 at Inner London Crown Court on 27 September 2023 following proceedings brought by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED). This is made up of a penthouse apartment in Gran Canaria and a Mazda RX7 (pictured), which Sediqi purchased using the money he made from the claims.
Sediqi was sentenced to four years imprisonment at Inner London Crown Court on 14 May 2021. He received a Serious Crime Prevention Order following his release from prison in March 2023, which placed him under a number of restrictions to prevent him from committing further offences.
Failure to make the payment within three months will result in Sediqi facing an additional five years imprisonment.
Detective Chief Inspector Tom Hill, from the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), said:
“Sediqi managed to fraudulently accrue hundreds of thousands of pounds by targeting solicitors and insurance companies, and stealing the identities of companies and members of the public.
“Our work doesn’t just stop at conviction, and I’d like to thank IFED’s financial investigators for their determination and diligence in securing the confiscation order.
“This result means that Sediqi will not be able to benefit any further from the money he earned through criminal activity, and shows that IFED has the ability to recover criminal assets and return them to victims of insurance fraud.”
During the confiscation proceedings, the court concluded that Sediqi had made £400,368 in benefit from his criminality, and had £210,000 in assets available to repay. The outstanding amount will be revisited by officers from IFED in the future.
Sediqi was referred to IFED for investigation after a legitimate claims management company discovered that he had posed as its director and offered to refer claims to a solicitors firm in exchange for a fee. Sediqi made £26,070 in referral fees, and detectives found that he was also linked to the bank accounts that received the compensation payments. It is estimated that Sediqi earned £52,472 from the scheme.
A separate investigation by IFED and insurer Aviva linked Sediqi and two others to 62 fraudulent motor insurance claims. The trio operated by fraudulently opening bank accounts using stolen IDs or fictitious details to take out insurance policies with Aviva. IFED’s financial investigators gathered evidence to show that Sediqi obtained a total of £137,596 from this activity.
Carl Mather, Special Investigations Unit Manager at Aviva, said:
“This confiscation order is an important result, not just for Aviva, but for the wider insurance industry, and should serve notice to career fraudsters that the money they have fraudulently stolen from insurers and their customers can – and will – be clawed back. Aviva fully supported IFED’s investigation and steps taken to secure the confiscation order. In granting it, the court has acknowledged the impact of insurance fraud on the general public.
“Sediqi is a serial fraudster who thought he could continue to profit from bogus insurance claims. Insurers are not a soft target for fraudsters, and Aviva remains resolute in its determination to detect and prosecute fraud to protect our honest customers from paying for the criminal actions of others.”