Man sentenced for £60,000 worth of bogus travel insurance claims

A man who pretended that he was forced to cancel 14 holidays due to Covid-19 restrictions in order to claim on insurance, has been sentenced.

Dominic Ayo Williams, 37, of Brackley Road, Bromley, previously known as Ayodele Oladuti, made 25 bogus travel and home insurance claims with two insurers, and received a total of £61,380 in payouts over a period of 18 months. He then attempted to cover up an unspent criminal conviction for fraud when one of the insurers questioned him about a claim.

Williams pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court on 29 November 2023 to 16 charges of fraud by false representation and one charge of using a false instrument with intent, following an investigation by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED). He was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on 3 February 2025 to two years imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and handed a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO).

The SCPO means that Williams will be subject to a number of restrictions, set in conjunction with the City of London Police’s Lifetime Offender Management Unit (LOMU), to prevent him from committing further offences. The restrictions include limitations on the number of phones and computers that Williams can own, and he must also notify LOMU each time he opens a bank account or takes out an insurance policy. Breach of a SCPO is a criminal offence punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

Confiscation proceedings will commence at a later date to recover the funds that Williams obtained.

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

“Many of us faced disruption to our travel plans as a result of Covid-19. Williams took advantage of this and systematically made bogus insurance claims for 18 months, pocketing tens of thousands of pounds that he wasn’t entitled to. After an insurer became suspicious of one of the claims, Williams had the audacity to apologise for lying and then send it forged documents the next day.

“Travel insurance provides peace of mind whilst in a foreign country and is meant to be a reassuring safety net should the worst happen, not a means of personal financial gain. The sentence handed to Williams and upcoming confiscation proceedings show that IFED will ensure that insurance criminals do not benefit from their dishonest actions.”

AXA’s fraud investigators suspected that Williams had made eight fraudulent claims between September 2020 and May 2021, against a travel insurance policy that it had underwritten. Seven of the claims, worth a total of £24,536, had been paid out.

In each claim, Williams either alleged that his accommodation provider could no longer host him due to the Covid-19 pandemic, or that he had to cancel his holiday due to foreign travel restrictions. He provided documents to substantiate the claims, including invoices from a genuine accommodation provider, which AXA confirmed had been forged. AXA referred the case to the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) for investigation on 25 June 2021.

Following a comparison of Williams’ bank accounts against the bank statements he had submitted to AXA, IFED officers confirmed that he had not booked any of the flights or accommodation that he had claimed for. 

Williams was arrested on 2 November 2021, and a search warrant was executed at his home address. During his police interview, Williams initially answered “no comment” to all questions asked, before going on to make a full admission regarding the false claims and forged documents.

IFED received a second referral related to Williams from Aviva on 10 May 2022. Aviva’s fraud investigators suspected that Williams had made 15 fraudulent claims between March 2020 and September 2021, against travel and home insurance policies that it had underwritten. Nine of the claims, worth a total of £36,844, had been paid out and the remainder were denied.

In one such claim, Williams stated that he had lost a Louis Vuitton bag that contained an iPhone, Rolex watch, AirPods and various documents. Aviva was suspicious of the claim and, after further investigation, established that Williams had been sentenced to two years imprisonment in 2017, after he pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud by false representation. He had been known by his former name, Oladuti, at the time.

When Aviva raised this with Williams, he stated that it had made a mistake and that the allegations related to his late brother. He then said that he had previously been known as Oladuti, but denied committing any offences or receiving a criminal conviction. Minutes later, Williams contacted Aviva and said that he had received a conviction that had later been overturned, then apologised for misleading it.

The following day, Williams sent Aviva a letter from Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), which stated that the Royal Courts of Justice had upheld an appeal against a conviction against him. Another letter from the Criminal Complaints Review Commission (CCRC) also confirmed that the appeal had been upheld. Following queries with the HMCTS and CCRC, Aviva confirmed that both documents were fake.

IFED officers carried out a voluntary attendance interview with Williams on 1 November 2022. He again confirmed that the claims he had made were false and that he had forged all of the documents he had submitted to support them.

Carl Mather, Special Investigations Manager, Aviva, said:

“Aviva is encouraged by today’s court decision. Dominic Williams exploited the Covid-19 pandemic to submit fraudulent travel claims and used falsified court documents to facilitate a bogus claim against a home insurance policy. The sentence reflects the cynical and audacious nature of his offending, and he now has time to reflect on his actions.

“Aviva will continue to invest heavily in our counter fraud capabilities and seek to pursue sanctions against fraudsters who operate at every level. Genuine customers are front and centre of our business decisions and mitigating the impact of fraud on policy premiums is a priority for Aviva.”