Harrow insurance fraudster ordered to pay back £210k

Hamid Sediqi, of Somervell Road in South Harrow, made £400,368 after making 60 false motor insurance claims which funded his penthouse apartment and a Mazda RX7.

The 38-year-old - who also went by the names Hamid Sharifi, Najib Sharifi and Kevin Heartbreak – was sentenced to four years' imprisonment at Inner London Crown Court on May 14, 2021.

Hamid Sediqi pictured holding cash (Image: City of London)

Appearing at the same court on Wednesday (September 27) this year, Sediqi was ordered to pay £210,000 within three months or face an additional five years in prison.

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Sediqi was investigated after a legitimate claims management company discovered he had posed as its director and offered to refer claims to a solicitors firm in exchange for a fee.

A view from the Gran Canaria penthouse (Image: City of London Police)

He made £26,070 in referral fees, and detectives found that he was also linked to the bank accounts that received the compensation payments. It is estimated that Sediqi earned £52,472 from the scheme.

A separate investigation linked Sediqi and two others to 62 fraudulent motor insurance claims.

Inside the Gran Canaria penthouse (Image: City of London Police)

The trio operated by fraudulently opening bank accounts using stolen IDs or fake details to take out insurance policies with Aviva – in which Sediqi obtained a total of £137,596.

The Mazda RX7 (Image: City of London 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.

Detective Chief Inspector Tom Hill, from the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (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.”

Carl Mather, special investigations unit manager at Aviva, said: “This confiscation order is an important result, not just for Aviva, but for the wider insurance industry, and should serve notice to career fraudsters that the money they have fraudulently stolen from insurers and their customers can – and will – be clawed back.”

He continued: “Sediqi is a serial fraudster who thought he could continue to profit from bogus insurance claims. Insurers are not a soft target for fraudsters, and Aviva remains resolute in its determination to detect and prosecute fraud to protect our honest customers from paying for the criminal actions of others.”