Preston Lawyers face jail for fraud

Four Preston legal workers are facing jail over a conspiracy to rip off insurance firms.
The three-year probe led to the prosecution of six men and two complicated trials at Liverpool Crown Court.The three-year probe led to the prosecution of six men and two complicated trials at Liverpool Crown Court.
The three-year probe led to the prosecution of six men and two complicated trials at Liverpool Crown Court.

The probe, by City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), centred around the forging of medical invoices and false injury claims, as well as bogus courtesy car hire and storage costs.

Six men tried to outwit employers, accident victims, and various insurance firms in the complex fraud.Solicitor Aadiel Salya, 28, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud after being linked to Preston-based company Replacemycar Ltd, which prosecutors says was created as a “vehicle of fraud”.

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The conclusion of his trial at Liverpool Crown court means we can now reveal former Farleys solicitor Nadir Suleman, 30, of Clement Road, Fulwood, Preston, and delivery driver Arif Patel, 32, of Highgate Avenue, Fulwood, also entered guilty pleas to two counts of conspiracy to defraud.

Paralegal Nadim Iqbal, 27, of Greyfriars Avenue, Preston, employed by Dylan Nair Solicitors, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud.

His brother Wasim Iqbal, 27, of Manor Avenue, Preston, a trainee solicitor formerly employed by Eastway Solicitors, and recruitment consultant Alex Butler, 28, of Parklands Drive, Preston, were found guilty of the same charge in a separate trial.

The three-year probe led to the prosecution of six men and two complicated trials at Liverpool Crown Court.

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The first centred around the creation of false medical reports – in the names of genuine doctors – and invoices to obtain injury and treatment compensation payments using the names of at least 50 genuine victims of accidents.

None of them had required or sought treatment.

The court heard on May 22, 2014 Nadim Iqbal was arrested at Dylan Nair Solicitors in relation to other matters and police found eight claims in the boot of his car.Some had connections with a firm called Plus One Medical, a company Dylan Nair had no trading relationship with.

Each included claims for physiotherapy or osteopathy and five had two medical reports purportedly from the same doctor, with one recommending treatment and the other not.Text messages and pictures were found on his phone leading officers to his brother Wasim and friend Alex Butler, and in turn incriminating evidence and documents were found on their computers.

In a second trial, which concluded yesterday, qualified solicitor Aadiel Salya was found guilty of the conspiracy in relation to hire car and storage claims – which co-defendants Patel and Suleman had already admitted.

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Robert Dudley, prosecuting, said: “There were genuine vehicles which were provided to people whose own vehicles had been damaged in genuine road traffic accidents, but false documents were created – emails creating false impressions about Replacemycar, using identities of people who were fictional creations.

“These documents were created specifically to obtain fictional or inflated car hire and storage costs in insurance claims.”

Salya, who had worked in a commercial property team, had acted alongside co-defendants Suleman and Patel who had a company, Replacemycar Ltd.

Mr Dudley added: “It provided hire cars to those whose cars had been damaged in accidents but when they did so their intention was not to provide a replacement while the damaged car was repaired, rather it was to build their own costs and they were charging over the odds for the cost of the vehicles that they provided.”

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Liverpool Crown Court heard Patel had been introducing personal injury clients to Farleys since 2009 through an accident claims management company.

On a phone seized from Nadir Suleman, there were numerous messages to Aadiel Salya’s mobile phone about Replacemycar Ltd, the size of the available fleet, insurance certificates for their cars.

When Salya’s home at Little Highwood, Church Brow, Walton-le-Dale, was searched on February 17, 2015, officers found Inland Revenue forms authorising BBS Company Accountants to act as agents for Replacemycar together with Replacemycar business cards in the name of Adam Ahmed.

There was a proposal to Mohammed and Co, solicitors to set up a Personal Injury department to be run by Nadir Suleman as a paralegal, with Aadiel Salya in the background.

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The court heard Salya’s phone was examined and had on it letters from Replacemycar to HMRC.

All six will be sentenced on a date to be arranged.

According to Companies House, Wickley Square-based Replacemycar Ltd was dissolved in November 2015.