A Derbyshire coach driver has been sentenced for submitting bogus health insurance claims through his employer’s healthcare scheme to the tune of more than £8,000 for himself and his family.
A statement released by City of London Police on Wednesday revealed Jason Bulley of Chesterfield Drive, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, submitted the claims for himself and his family, and orchestrated claims on behalf of his work colleagues for medical and dental treatments, totalling £8,624.
City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) investigations found that Bulley had made 18 claims in total, across three separate insurers.
Bulley signed up for health insurance in 2013 with an insurer to cover himself, his wife, and two children through his employer’s scheme, with the cost of the premium taken directly from his salary.
In 2015 and 2016, he set up further policies for himself and his family with Simplyhealth and another insurer.
Over three years, Bulley made multiple claims for overnight stays at his local hospital through the three insurers, providing claims forms which appeared to be signed by a member of medical staff and stamped by the hospital.
Bulley’s number of inpatient claims raised the suspicions of the insurers which led to the case being referred to the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) for investigation.
Despite his numerous claims and signed forms indicating numerous overnight stays, checks with the hospital found that they had no record of Bulley ever being a patient. The dental practice Bulley claimed to have used was also contacted, which could not substantiate five of the eight claims he had submitted.
Further enquiries into Bulley’s claims brought up similarities with those made by his colleagues, who had submitted various claims for overnight admissions at the same hospital with these colleagues providing nearly identical forms to substantiate their claims, which used the same hospital stamp and signatures.
IFED officers interviewed Bulley and his colleagues, with the colleagues admitting that their claims were false and accepting a police caution on the condition that they returned the money to the insurers. While Bulley also confessed to submitting fraudulent claims, he refused to return the funds to the insurance companies.
Assisted colleagues’ false claims
Interviews also revealed that Bulley had in fact assisted his co-workers to submit false claims and had instructed colleagues to fill in the personal details section of the form and to then hand it over to him to complete.
The compensation would then be paid into the claimant’s account shortly after and some of the recipients would give a percentage to Bulley.
Commenting on the case, detective constable Ian Cambridge, from the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), said: “While Bulley found himself in a difficult position with his wife being terminally ill, he should have sought help rather than turning to fraud.
“Bulley’s fraud initially went undetected, which appears to have given him the confidence to act so brazenly by submitting numerous claims across multiple insurers and also devising further claims for his colleagues. However, these shameless, repeated lies soon came to light and the extent of his offending was uncovered.”
A spokesperson from Simplyhealth said: “Simplyhealth is vigilant against fraudulent activity. We take any fraud seriously and work hard to support our loyal customers. We have fully supported the IFED’s investigation.”
Bulley was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work, a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement order with the Probation Service to cover money management and debt control, and ordered to repay £170 in court costs at Westminster Magistrates on Tuesday 27 April 2021.