A fraudster who cloned a claims management company and sold cases to solicitors has been ordered to sell assets to pay back £210,000.
Hamid Sediqi, 38, was given three months to sell a car and property funded through his crimes, or he will face an extra five years’ imprisonment.
The confiscation order was made on Wednesday at Inner London Crown Court following proceedings brought by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).
Sediqi, from Harrow, bought a penthouse apartment in Gran Canaria and a pink Mazda RX7 after orchestrating more than 60 fraudulent motor insurance claims.
Using the pseudonym Kevin Heartbreak, he posed as the director of a legitimate CMC and referred 76 claims to solicitors, being paid more than £26,000 in fees. His fraud was discovered after the CMC referred the matter to police.
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.
A separate investigation by IFED and insurer Aviva linked Sediqi and two others to 62 fraudulent motor insurance claims. The trio fraudulently opened bank accounts using stolen IDs or fictitious details to take out insurance policies with Aviva. Investigators were able to show that Sediqi obtained a total of £137,596 from this activity.
In May 2021, Sediqi was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. Following his release earlier this year, a serious crime prevention order placed him under a number of restrictions to prevent further offences.
Detective chief inspector Tom Hill, from 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.
‘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.’
