A man who submitted a number of fake home insurance claims to RSA Insurance for the second time has been jailed. Joel Mtebe, 37, of Darwen Fold Close, Chorley, was first sentenced in 2017 after making 15 fraudulent claims on home insurance policies underwritten by RSA. Between March 2019 and February 2022, he took out six further home insurance policies underwritten by RSA using fictitious identities and made 15 fake claims against them.
Nine of the claims were successful and resulted in him receiving payments worth a total of £11,750. However, RSA linked Mtebe to four of the six policies and referred the case to the City of London Police's Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) for investigation. Mtebe pleaded guilty at Preston Magistrates Court on April 25 to eight counts of fraud by false representation.
He was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on August 20 to 20 months imprisonment and must also pay a £140 victim surcharge. Detective constable Dan Weller said: "Mtebe concocted a series of stories, which ranged from him falling over and dropping his phone down a drain to a child smashing a toy into his TV screen, all for the purpose of making a quick gain. "Claims like these push up the cost of insurance premiums for everyone else, which means that honest customers end up paying the price.
" Mtebe took out a home insurance policy under the name Thomas Bass in January 2020. In March, he reported the loss of a backpack, but the claim was declined. He made further cl.