Coach driver found to be driving force behind fraudulent health insurance claims sentenced

A man has been sentenced for making a number of fraudulent insurance claims through his employer’s healthcare scheme.

Jason Bulley, 38, of Chesterfield Drive, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, submitted bogus insurance claims for himself and his family, and orchestrated claims on behalf of his work colleagues for medical and dental treatments, totalling £8,624. Investigations undertaken by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) found that Bulley had made eighteen claims in total, across three separate insurers.

Bulley was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work, a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement order with the Probation Service to cover money management and debt control, and ordered to repay £170 in court costs at Westminster Magistrates on Tuesday 27 April 2021.

Detective Constable Ian Cambridge, from the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), said:

“Whilst Bulley found himself in a difficult  position with his wife being terminally ill, he should have sought help rather than turning to fraud.

“Bulley’s fraud initially went undetected, which appears to have given him the confidence to act so brazenly by submitting numerous claims across multiple insurers and also devising further claims for his colleagues. However, these shameless, repeated lies soon came to light and the extent of his offending was uncovered.”

Bulley signed up for health insurance in 2013 with an insurer to cover himself, his wife, and two children through his employer’s scheme, meaning that the cost of the premium was taken directly from his salary. In 2015 and 2016, Bulley set up further policies for himself and his family with Simplyhealth and a further insurer.

Over the course of three years, Bulley made multiple claims for overnight stays at his local hospital through the three insurers, providing claims forms which appeared to be signed by a member of medical staff and stamped by the hospital. The sheer number of inpatient claims for Bulley alone raised the suspicions of the insurers, leading to the case being referred to IFED for investigation.

Checks with the hospital found that they had no record of Bulley ever being a patient, despite his numerous claims and signed forms supposedly verifying numerous overnight stays. The dental practice Bulley alleged to have used was also contacted, which stated that it could not substantiate five of the eight claims he had submitted.

Enquiries into Bulley’s claims flagged similarities with those made by his colleagues, who had  submitted various claims for overnight admissions at the same hospital. These colleagues had also provided nearly identical forms to substantiate their claims, which used the same hospital stamp and signatures.

IFED officers interviewed Bulley and his colleagues, with the latter admitting that their claims were false and accepting a police caution on the condition that they returned the money to the insurers.  Whilst Bulley also confessed to submitting fraudulent claims, he refused to return the funds to the insurance companies.

Interviews also revealed that Bulley had in fact assisted his co-workers to submit false claims. Bulley instructed colleagues to fill in the personal details section of the form and to then hand it over to him to complete. The compensation would be paid into the claimant’s account shortly after and some of the recipients would give a percentage to Bulley.

A spokesperson from Simplyhealth said:

“Simplyhealth is vigilant against fraudulent activity. We take any fraud seriously and work hard to support our loyal customers. We have fully supported the IFED’s investigation.”