Delivery driver jailed for Covid test kit fraud

Thousands of lateral flow tests were found dumped in a skip

A delivery driver who fraudulently ordered Covid home testing kits so that he could claim for delivering them has been jailed for two years and one month.

Stephen Keig, 41, dumped them in a skip and also kept more than £9,000 worth of other parcels he had been tasked with delivering.

Fellow driver Lucy Randle-Heslop was handed a suspended sentence for her part in the test kit scam.

Douglas Courthouse heard the pair fraudulently ordered more than 32,000 tests over a two-month period in 2021.

At the time, island residents could order a pack of seven lateral flow tests (LFTs) via the government website free of charge, which would be delivered the following day.

Randle-Heslop, of Ballabrooie Avenue in Douglas, was handed a 12-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, with a supervision order for the same period.

The court heard the scam was discovered after 35 black bin bags full of the tests were found dumped at the civic amenity in Douglas.

Keig was identified through the registration number of the van he used to dump the tests after it was caught on CCTV.

Messages between himself and Randle-Heslop, 39, showed both had been involved in falsely ordering packs of the tests for addresses in their own delivery areas between 14 September and 11 November 2021.

The court heard the duo had placed multiple orders for the same set of addresses, which included a sheltered housing complex, and had been paid £1 to deliver each order placed.

Disorganised

A search of Keig’s home in Princes Street in Douglas uncovered more than £1,900 worth of undelivered parcels, with a further £7,900 worth in a storage unit he rented in Braddan.

Keig told police the parcels had been wrongly allocated to him and he had failed to return them to the depot in good time because he was disorganised but had not attempted to sell them on.

He had justified keeping the parcels because the people they were addressed to would be given a refund or sent another package.

Some of those thefts dated as far back as July 2019.

The court heard officers also found 19 indecent images of children on devices seized from Keig’s home in Princes Avenue in Douglas as well as evidence he had helped Randal-Heslop edit her bank statements to hide her earnings from the court.

Both he and Randle-Heslop pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and conspiracy to commit an act against public justice.

Keig also admitted two counts of theft, and one of making indecent images and one of possession of an offensive weapon.

Sentencing the pair, Deemser Graeme Cook said their actions had deprived the people of the Isle of Man of 32,000 lateral flow tests at a time when people were dying as a result of the pandemic.

Keig was also placed on the sex offenders register for seven years, made subject to travel notification restrictions for the same period, and given a sexual offences prevention order, which restricts his access to electronic devices and the internet.