Family sentenced for £2m health insurance card scam

Ruth Andrews, eCrime manager at City of York Council, said the defendants had "brazenly persisted with their fraud" despite previous arrests and written warnings

Two brothers have been jailed and their parents given suspended sentences over a £2m health insurance scam.

The website con misled people into needlessly paying for European Health Insurance Cards, freely available from the official NHS website.

The defendants, all from Sunderland, were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Monday.

The investigation was led by Trading Standards working alongside North Yorkshire and City of York councils.

The swindle saw Damien Sartip Zadeh, 32, and Dale Sartip Zadeh, 35, push their misleading websites to the top of internet search results, to trick consumers into needlessly paying for their health cards.

Damien Sartip Zadeh received the longer of the sentences given to the brothers

However, the websites were a front for what was described by City of York Council as a "clever cut and paste" job, with customers' details simply being copied over into the NHS website form.

Both Damien Sartip Zadeh, of Angram Drive, Sunderland, and his brother Dale, were found guilty of fraudulent trading and laundering the proceeds, between February 2013 and October 2019.

The pair were jailed for nine-and-a-half years and eight years respectively.

'Serious and organised fraud'

Their parents, Diane Sartip Zadeh, 60, and Mahmud Sartip Zadeh, 62, also of Angram Drive, Sunderland, were found guilty of money laundering and were sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years.

Both were also told to attend 10 activity rehabilitation days, with Mahmud Sartip Zadeh ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

The brothers were directors of the companies behind the misleading websites. They were disqualified from being directors for 10 years.

Damien Sartip Zadeh was also convicted of engaging in aggressive commercial practices after threatening consumers who complained to prevent them pursuing refunds.

Lord Michael Bichard, who chairs National Trading Standards, said: "This was a case of serious and organised fraud, where large sums were taken from unsuspecting, ordinary, busy people and the sites were a scam from start to finish."

Ruth Andrews, eCrime manager at City of York Council, added: "Despite multiple warning flags being raised with these defendants they brazenly persisted with their fraud."

Councillor Greg White, executive member for regulatory services at North Yorkshire Council, commended the National Trading Standards eCrime team for bringing "this long and difficult case against this family of scammers to its successful end".