Salisbury couple jailed for insurance fraud after staging own burglary

A couple from Salisbury have been jailed for two years each after pleading guilty to serious insurance fraud after staging their own burglary.

Graham Mundy, 52, and Joanna Beames, 34, both of Old Blandford Road in Salisbury will spend 26 months in prison.

In February 2019, Wiltshire Police received a call from Mundy who was reporting a high value burglary at his home at Caddens, Homington.

He told the force that items like watches, jewellery and laptops worth over £120,000 had been taken.

In March 2019, his insurance company Chubb paid a settlement of £121,248.31 to Mundy.

As an investigation was carried out into the burglary, it was spotted that Beames had already made an insurance claim for one of the diamond rings the year before.

An examination of the photos of the rings and the certificates showed that they had been taken after it was alleged to have been lost.

So police executed a warrant at the address in August 2019 and found most of the items that had been allegedly stolen.

Beames, who works in the insurance industry, had been paid £30,000 of the settlement, and Mundy used the rest of the cash in his business.

Det Con Ben Brewster said:

"This is a serious case of insurance fraud and brings to the end a lengthy investigation.

This may be perceived as a victimless crime and the desperate actions of two people in financial difficulty but it is a very serious offence and incidents like this cost the insurance industry millions of pounds every year, not to mention the wasting of police time to investigate what was believed to be a significant burglary, time that could have been better spent elsewhere in our community.

I hope today’s sentence will act as a strong deterrent to those who contemplate this as a legitimate option to get themselves out of financial difficulty. There are always better options than turning to crime and charities on hand to provide the right support."

A spokesperson for Chubb said:

"Chubb works closely with law enforcement to apprehend and prosecute those who commit insurance fraud.

Together, we can protect innocent customers from the impact of fraudulent claims."

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• salisbury
• Fraud
• staged burglary
• wiltshire police