15 May 2023
Employee who made tens of thousands of pounds through false claims while working for a Northumberland practice was caught days before she was due to take a new job, a court has heard.
Vet Times
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A former finance assistant who submitted fraudulent pet insurance claims worth more than £36,000 has been given a suspended jail term.
A specialist insurance fraud investigator described Helen Pearse’s conduct as “alarming” after she was sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, at Newcastle Crown Court on Thursday 11 May.
Recorder Ben Nolan KC, passing sentence, described Pearse’s actions as “a fairly sophisticated series of frauds involving adaptions and altering of documents”, ChronicleLive reported.
Pearse, 33 – of Hawthorn Road, Widdrington Station in Northumberland – previously admitted six counts of fraud by abuse of position during a magistrates’ court hearing last month.
The case related to false insurance claims – mostly concerning animals that didn’t exist – that were submitted while she was employed by Robson and Prescott Vets, which runs eight practices in the region.
Although the offences were committed over a four-year period, Kevin Wardlaw, prosecuting, told the court they only came to light in April last year, days before she was due to leave the business and start a new job. The case was later referred to the City of London Police.
Mr Wardlaw said: ”This is not a case where somebody has been living the high life. She was on a low salary (£23,000), had a mortgage, a nice car and a horse.
“She did have a position of trust and there was some sophistication to the offending.
“She had to access details from her employer and alter them to submit details to the insurance companies to support the claims. This was over a lengthy period of time, just under four years.”
Lorraine Mustard, mitigating, said: “Effectively what happened is she found herself in financial difficulties. She was not living an extravagant life.
“Her parents have offered to help her repay this. They made it plain, had she come to them with her difficulties they could have helped her.
“She had difficulties with her mental health. This is entirely out of character.
“She fully acknowledges she dealt with this quite wrongly and is at pains to make the repayments. Her family have stepped up to help her repay this.”
The court was told that around £15,000 of the total amount obtained through the claims remained outstanding and issued a confiscation order, requiring the balance to be repaid within 12 months.
In a statement released after the hearing, Jon Radford – head of intelligence, investigations and data services for the Insurance Fraud Bureau, who worked with police on the case – added: “It’s alarming that someone who works at a veterinary practice and is trusted to take care of people’s pets orchestrated fraud of this scale.”
