A High Wycombe man who made false insurance claims worth more than £40,000 after exaggerating items stolen in a house burglary has been given a suspended sentence. 

Mahmood Khan, 44, from Meadow Close, lied about items that were stolen from his home in a burglary including Asian gold jewellery and an Apple Mac Pro computer. 

The burglary was first reported to Thames Valley Police on April 1 2014, and on the same day it was also reported to Khan’s home insurance company, RSA.

RSA then appointed LMG Jewellery and loss adjustor Crawfords & Company to handle the claim on their behalf.

During a phone call made by LMG to verify the items that had been stolen, the phone handler made a mistake and added a loss list from another customer onto Khan’s list of stolen items.

The extra items included pieces of Asian gold jewellery, three Tresor bracelets, a Raymond Weil watch, an eternity ring and a diamond ring.

LMG got back in touch on July 7, 2014 to say there had been an error on the claim, but were told to keep it as it was.

In a report prepared by LMG for RSA, they highlighted a number of issues with the description and value of the items being claimed.

Crawfords also prepared a report outlining their findings - they detailed how an additional Mac Pro computer worth £5,699 was stated as stolen after being bought on December 8 2013, but later found out that it was not actually available on sale to the public on that date.

An RSA investigator then visited Khan in August 2014 to raise issues with the loss list and he provided a bank statement which matched the date he claimed he had purchased the Mac Pro computer on and for the same price, however the retail store where the computer was allegedly purchased from confirmed that the order number on the invoice supplied did not relate to the alleged stolen computer. 

Khan was then presented with the loss list of jewellery and he admitted that some of the items had not been stolen.

The insurance policy was voided and referred to the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), who arrested Khan and searched his home.

On a seized laptop, police found a fraudulent bank statement and invoice for the "stolen" Mac Pro computer in PDF and word processor format, suggesting that they had been edited.

Police also discovered that the documents were created on June 16 2014, more than a month after the reported burglary.

Police also uncovered a large amount of Asian gold jewellery in a suitcase underneath six other cases, which matched the description of the items allegedly stolen in the burglary.

Khan pleaded guilty to two of fraud by false representation and four counts of making articles for use in fraud, and was sentenced at Aylesbury Crown Court to nine months imprisonment, suspended for two years on November 22. 

He was also fined £9,000 for all six counts of fraud and ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation to insurance company RSA.

City of London Police Detective Constable Aman Taylor, who led the insurance fraud enforcement department's investigation, said: “While Khan was the victim of a genuine burglary, it was no excuse for what he went on to do, which is to try and deceive his insurance company by making grossly exaggerated claims about the details of what was stolen.

“No matter what the situation people find themselves in, they should never turn to crime to try and better their situation. Thanks to the helpful information supplied by RSA, Crawfords and LMG, and the hard work of our Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department, Khan has been dealt the punishment he deserves and taught the valuable lesson that crime never pays.”