Cancelled holiday is used in £11,000 fraud
A mother who repeatedly forged her doctor's signature to make insurance claims totalling thousands of pounds for a cancelled trip to Lanzorate has been spared an immediate stint behind bars.
Joanne Hunt admitted submitting claims totalling £11,070 to seven insurers after calling off her family's holiday when her daughter became ill.
The 28-year-old from Burntwood failed to declare on claim forms she had more than one insurance policy covering the holiday and faked her doctor's signature on six of the forms.
The con came to light when Aria Assistance identified a claim to them as fraudulent.
The insurers alerted IFIG, the Insurance Fraud Investigators Group, and the other attempted frauds emerged. The case was referred to the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), part of the City of London Police, for investigation.
Detectives travelled to Staffordshire to interview Hunt after which she was summonsed to City of London Magistrates' Court and pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud by false representation.
Dc Julian Brown, of IFED, said: "Hunt used her daughter's illness and a cancelled family holiday as a means to try and con thousands of pounds from insurers."
Hunt of The Crescent, in Burntwood, received a 14-week jail term suspended for two years at City of London Magistrates' Court on Thursday.
She will also have to do 100 hours unpaid work and pay £85 court costs.
