Insurance scam: Pakistani man jailed in UK for faking death, posing as wife

A Pakistani man was jailed in United Kingdom (UK) for faking his death at a Karachi hospital and later approaching the insurance company to claim an around 1 million euros, approximately 171 million Pakistani rupees fraud while impersonating as his wife.  

He also used a bogus death certificate claiming being buried at a cemetery in the city after dying of a heart attack at a local hospital, which authorities later found does not exist.

Mr Bukhari impersonated his female partner on the phone to try and fake his own death in Pakistan and make a claim worth £1m!

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

— Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (@CityPoliceIFED) January 17, 2020

According to a statement issued from the Insurance Fraud Enforcement department of the City Police London, a man has been sentenced after he impersonated his partner on the phone to try and fake his own death in Pakistan and make a false insurance claim worth a total of £999,999.

On Thursday 16 January 2020, Syed Bukhari, 39, who is currently serving seven years and 11 months in prison for unrelated fraud offenses, was convicted at Inner London Crown Court. He was sentenced to five years and seven months in prison, which will run consecutively to his current sentence.

It comes after a successful investigation by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), which resulted in Bukhari pleading guilty to one count of fraud by false representation a month earlier (Thursday 19 December 2019).

It was discovered that Bukhari had initially contacted his insurance company via email purporting to be his partner, claiming that he’d died from a heart attack in Karachi, Pakistan. Bukhari also impersonated his partner on the phone in an attempt to validate the claim and progress it further.

However, a voice analysis expert compared Bukhari’s voice to the one on the calls allegedly made by his partner and determined that there was strong support to advocate that the ‘unknown speaker’ on the call was Bukhari.

“If he’d been successful, he would’ve benefited up to the sum of £999,999, but thanks to the initial enquiries carried out by the insurer and their subsequent referral to IFED, we were able to uncover the full extent of his fraudulent activity and bring him to justice,” said an acting Detective Sergeant Mike Monkton, who led the investigation.

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IFED enquiries also revealed that Bukhari submitted fake documents to try and substantiate his claim, including a medical certificate of cause of death, a death registration certificate and a trust document.

During investigations in Karachi, it was revealed that the death certificate, where Bukhari had allegedly been buried, had no record in their register of it happening on the date listed or a week either side.

The union council offices, where his death certificate was prepared, also did not possess a complete record of his death. Not only that even the hospital listed on the medical certificate of cause of death was not found. A doctor from a nearby hospital also said he’d never heard of the medical centre.

Despite this overwhelming evidence, Bukhari initially denied the fraud and said it was his partner who made the claim without his knowledge. He later pleaded guilty at court.