Jail threat for insurance faker

An interior designer who faked insurance claims for thousands of pounds worth of ‘lost’ gadgets must pay £7,000 in compensation or spend six months behind bars.

Alison Ntim, 23, came up with the ruse after making a legitimate claim for a missing iPhone 5 on the London Metropolitan University’s travel insurance policy.

She then hijacked a fellow student’s identity for one false claim and concocted another five to continue with the scam.

The former interior design student, who was enrolled between 2014 and last year, tried to claim £14,090 for a Canon camera, a laptop, an Apple MacBook Pro, and iPhone 6, and iPad Pro and a Breitling watch.

Qualified kitchen designer Ntim managed to rake in £7,250 before insurers AIG Europe Ltd grew suspicious and raised the alarm with the City of London Police.

Although there was no handwriting to match on the typed forms, Ntim submitted her own address and bank account for the payout.

She admitted fraud offences last year and was handed an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete 150 hours of community service as well as a 15-day rehabilitation course back in February.

Today (thurs) prosecutor Isabel Delamere asked the court to impose a nominal confiscation order in the sum of £1, along with an order for the £7,250 benefit to be paid as compensation.

‘We have an agreed benefit figure of £7,250 and that is made up of the counts on the original indictment and those matters taken into consideration,’ she said.

‘So far as a confiscation order is concerned, we would seek a nominal order of £1 because it is proposed and agreed that a compensation order be made in the sum of £7,250 in favour of AIG Travel EMEA Ltd.

‘If that compensation is paid and discharged, then of course the Crown will not proceed with any confiscation any further. But we hold it open just in case it isn’t paid.’

A default prison sentence of six months will be imposed should she fail to make the payment through four instalments on 31 January and 31 July of the next two years.

Making the orders, Judge Richard Marks QC told Ntim: ‘You do really need to be very, very careful.

‘I have read about your background and the trouble you have been in.’

He added: ‘You are obviously a young woman with ability, but if you carry on the way you have done in the past, there is only one place you are going to end up; and that is prison.

‘That is something you need to have very much in mind.

‘You really do need to put all of this behind you.’

Ntim, of Archway, north London, was made subject to a £1 confiscation order and must pay AIG Europe Ltd £7,250 in compensation over four six-monthly instalments beginning January 31, 2019.

A default six-month prison sentence was imposed should she fail to satisfy the orders.