Danyal Buckharee admits duping hundreds of drivers

A fraudster has admitted duping hundreds of drivers into taking out non-existent car insurance.

Danyal Buckharee, from Putney, London, set up two websites advertising cheap car insurance and between May 2011 and last April sold 600 worthless policies.

He appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday and admitted fraud and money laundering offences.

The City of London Police said he had masterminded an extensive fraud and pocketed more than £550,000.

'Extensive fraud'

The 42-year-old's con came to light when drivers who had been stopped by police for holding no insurance complained to trading standards about Aston Midshires Insurance.

The business' address was listed in Enderby, Leicestershire, although the owner of the office block said it had never been there.

Det Ch Insp Dave Wood, head of IFED, said: "This is the biggest investigation we undertook in 2012 and I am very pleased that our hard work has delivered the right result, without Buckharee having to go to trial.

"Buckharee masterminded an extensive car insurance fraud that made him hundreds of thousands of pounds and left hundreds of drivers unknowingly out on the road with no insurance.

"Buckharee exposed his victims to risk and financial loss but now it is his turn to pay the price of his fraud."

He was arrested last April and detectives found evidence of four fake websites Aston Midshires Insurance, First Car Direct Insurance, Astuto Insurance and Car Insurance Warehouse.

At the Old Bailey he admitted two counts of fraud and three of money laundering but denied two other counts of fraud which will lie on file.

Six other people have denied similar charges in relation to the websites.

They are Abdullai Alli, 46, from Croydon, Andrew Goward, 37, from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, Gary Heaven, 47, from Tulse Hill, London, Kevin Lewis, 45, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Giovanni Recchia, 46, from Retford, Nottinghamshire, Mohamed Saleh, 24, from Hammersmith, London.

A trial is expected to last five weeks and be held in September.