UK man jailed for travel insurance fraud
Joshua Moorcroft, 27, has been jailed for making fraudulent travel insurance claims worth a total of £75,000 with six different insurance companies
Liverpool resident Joshua Moorcroft submitted fraudulent claims for missed or cancelled travel with six different travel insurers for trips to Dubai, Barbados, Los Angeles, Rhodes, Tenerife and Turkey.
Moorcroft made several claims under his own name, using various excuses to substantiate his claims, including injury, job loss and disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He also took out policies and submitted claims under the names of people he knew, including his partner, his partner’s parents, as well as former work colleagues.
Moorcroft was sentenced to 16 months in prison at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday 22 August, having pleaded guilty to the 15 counts of fraud by false representation at Liverpool Magistrates Court on 25 July. He is also subject to a Proceeds of Crime investigation which aims to identify and seize recoverable assets on behalf of the insurers.
The case bears similarities to that of a Singaporean woman who was sentenced to five months of jail time in July 2022 for fraudulent travel insurance claims worth S$14,000 (approximately US$10,000).
Moorcroft submitted multiple fake claims with Aviva
Moorcroft came under investigation when one of the insurers he targeted, Aviva, suspected that his claims were fraudulent, and referred the case to the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED).
He had taken out a multi-trip worldwide travel insurance policy, underwritten by Aviva, in October 2019. Nine days after the cover had commenced, Moorcroft submitted a claim for a missed flight from Manchester to New York, on the basis that his ‘taxi broke down on the way to the airport due to an exploded tyre’.
Two months later, Moorcroft made another claim for a missed flight from Manchester to Qatar, which he said he had missed because he had been involved in a road traffic accident on the way to the airport. To substantiate his claim, Moorcroft provided a screenshot of an email which he claimed was from one of the police officers who had attended the scene.
He subsequently submitted three more claims in February 2020, relating to missed trips to Dubai and Las Vegas, which he said he could not attend due to ‘surgery on a fractured hand’. Moorcroft said that he was not able to travel until the pins from his surgery were removed and provided a number of fraudulent documents to support this, including from a travel company and his local hospital.
Aviva enquired with the travel company named in the documents about the booking to Dubai, who confirmed that they had no record of his booking. Moorcroft was challenged by Aviva about this but could not provide an explanation.
Further checks found that Moorcroft had requested quotes for these holidays in 2018 but did not complete the bookings. This prompted Aviva to investigate his earlier claims for missed flights – through which they confirmed that the email from the police officer following Moorcroft’s ‘accident’ was fake. Following this internal investigation, Aviva referred the case to IFED.
Claims were submitted under the names of people Moorcroft knew
Moorcroft was arrested by IFED at his partner’s home in October 2020, where officers seized multiple pieces of evidence, including a phone and a laptop.
Detective Constable Justin Hawes of IFED said: “Although Moorcroft immediately admitted to the first five offences when interviewed by IFED, he wasted police time by denying that he had submitted any other claims. A review of his devices found that this was certainly not the case, and that he had in fact orchestrated a further 10 bogus claims.”
One of these claims was made in his partner’s name for a trip to Barbados, which was cancelled due to her supposedly being made redundant. A signed letter was provided by her employer to support the claim, who was subsequently contacted to check the authenticity of the letter. The company director revealed that he had never employed anyone with this name, but that he did know the person as it was the girlfriend of his cousin – Moorcroft.
During a follow-up interview with IFED officers, Moorcroft admitted to the further claims found on his devices.
Hawes added: “Moorcroft has shown very little regard in terms of who he has implicated whilst committing these crimes, including his family, former colleagues, partner, and even her family. I don’t doubt that he has put all of these innocent parties through a lot of stress by doing so. Hopefully this result will force him to reflect on his actions and the impact they have had on those around him.”
“Aviva welcomes the sentencing of Joshua Moorcroft, which underscores the serious nature of insurance fraud,” said Carl Mather, Manager of Aviva’s Special Investigations Unit. “Mr Moorcroft’s greed has now left him with a criminal record, a tarnished reputation and an uncertain future. As a business, we value our customers and go to great lengths to reduce the impact that claims fraud has on policy premiums – particularly at a time when so many are facing real financial challenges.”