A serial fraudster who rang his insurance company from Pakistan, posing as his grieving wife, and claimed he had died of a heart attack has been jailed for five years by a court in London.
Syed Bukhari, 39, from Manchester, had insured his own life for £999,999 and hoped he could trick the company into believing he had died while visiting relatives in Karachi, Pakistan.
Syed Bukhari has been jailed for five years for insurance fraud after he rang up from #Pakistan - pretending to be his wife - and claimed he had died of a heart attack. Bukhari's life was insured for £1m..... If replying or retweeting, kindly keep your racist opinions to yourself pic.twitter.com/LS0T7U3XQn
— Total Crime (@totalcrime) January 17, 2020
He initially emailed the company, pretending to be his partner, but was asked to validate the claim by phone.
Not put off, Bukhari rang up and put on a woman’s voice in an attempt to continue the ruse.
The insurance company employed a voice analysis expert to compare his voice with the phone call and they decided they were one and the same person.
Bukhari had also submitted fake documents, including a death certificate but his fingerprints were found on the papers and when an investigator attended a Union Council office in Pakistan they found Bukhari’s file was empty.
Mr Bukhari impersonated his female partner on the phone to try and fake his own death in Pakistan and make a claim worth £1m!
— Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (@CityPoliceIFED) January 17, 2020
Our investigation revealed that he also used a bogus death certificate to try and progress his claim.
Read more about the case: https://t.co/vC53tCYaml pic.twitter.com/dAKRE8toEV
Detective Sergeant Mike Monkton, who led the City of London Police’s investigation into the bogus life insurance claim, said: “Not only did Bukhari try and fake his own death and steal hundreds of thousands of pounds from his insurer, he was also brazen enough to impersonate his partner in a bid to progress his claim.”
On Thursday 16 January, Bukhari, was jailed for five years and seven months at Inner London Crown Court.
The sentence will be served consecutively after a seven year term he was given in 2018 for defrauding an elderly couple in Lancashire.
A court in Preston heard he posed as a bank manager, Gerry Patel, when he approached a couple, who were aged 80 and 81 and both suffered from dementia.
He tricked them into transferring £150,000 into his bank account to apply for loans. Bukhari even sold their house without their knowledge.
Bukhari spent his ill-gotten gains on six trips to the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, travelling first class and spending £11,000 on a hotel stay in Dubai. He also spent tens of thousands of pounds on Rolex watches, jewellery and designer clothes and underwent a cosmetic procedure to cover up his bald patch.
