A few fraudsters who failed

[CliveH]

You get a few funnies in the pinks on a Friday -

 

The last one is my favourite

 

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A man who failed his driving test five times decided to get a friend to take it for him.According to the Daily Mail, Hadi Mohammed and Derbas Hamed cheated the test system and were both jailed after admitting the fraud.

 

Gloucester Crown Court heard that Hamed, a qualified driver, turned up at the test centre in the city pretending to be Mohammed.

 

It might have all worked beautifully had Hamed not decided to turn up at the test centre without L plates or anybody else in the vehicle. As it happens, Hamed failed anyway, making 16 driving offences in the process.

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Fraudsters Elina Jaksone and Gagik Manucharyan caught scam investigators’ attention last year after a going on a spree of luxury holidays and paying fees for one of the UK’s top private schools.

 

They’d set up a bogus brokerage firm charging customers £100 each in commission for securing cheap car insurance.

 

However, unbeknown to their customers, the pair then posed as the drivers, lied to the underwriters and managed to secure cheap deals.

 

The scheme went undetected for seven years, making them a total of £920,000.

 

According to the Telegraph, Manucharyan was jailed for five years and two months and Jaksone for five years.

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A woman who managed to pocket nearly £2,500 by paying herself refunds through her job at a Peterborough John Lewis was branded ‘extremely stupid,’ after she was caught.

 

Arabella Wills was working on the Chanel counter at everybody’s favourite department store between October 2012 and September 2013.

 

She made several refunds to her account, claims filed under a ‘Mrs Thomas,’ who according to her was a customer at the store. However she made a major rookie error when she used her own postcode on the transactions. Bosses grew suspicious, and Wills pleaded guilty to fraud at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court.

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Midland Bank ceased trading as that name in 1999 becoming part of HSBC, but Margate-based Jonathan Hambly was none the wiser.

 

He went to his local branch of Cashmakers to cash a £400 Midland Bank cheque in April 2008 claiming that it was deposit refunded to him by his former landlord.

 

The police were called and Hambly had to admit that it was a fraudulent cheque. He was ordered to carry out 120 hours unpaid work and pay £60 in costs.

 

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Lorry driver Neil Bates pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit fraud earlier this year and was jailed for 12 months.

 

Bates was approached by two gents while on holiday, who told him they were bankrupt, and 'could they use his bank account?' Presumably, Bates said that was fine, and thus became embroiled in a global shares scam.

 

According to Manchester Evening News the lorry driver's account was used to channel cash for a false brokering company.

 

The company sent out emails to potential customers advertising the sale of shares at various companies. A total of £86,000 was paid into Bates account. No shares were sent out.

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Carlos Baptiste was jailed for fraud when it was discovered that he had made an application for a crisis loan after responding to a website offering a way to make money quick.

 

Baptiste was loaned £890 at Thornton Heath Job Centre on 29 March, last year.

 

According to the Croydon Guardian, CCTV footage showed Baptiste arriving at the job centre in a Mercedes driven by two other men.

 

He returned to the car after making the claim before being driven to the nearest post office where the giros were cashed. The three men planned to split the cash.

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Self-styled Lord Gregory Roberts got caught after he tried to steal £6.8 million from fake tax repayment claims.

 

Roberts admitted sending HMRC fake repayment claims for VAT and tax worth more than £1.6 million each. Calling himself 'Lord Roberts,' he also tried to claim £3.5 million by sending a fraudulent company tax return.

 

HMRC refused to pay the claims and said the fraud was easy to spot. It said fake invoices and bank statements used to back up the claims contained errors and spelling mistakes, including a misspelling of 'Dumfries' as 'Bum Fries'. Falsified bank statements also showed transactions occurring in the future.