Insurance fraudster who'd set fire to his factory sentenced to 13 months

Posted: 04 March 2022

 

Haroon Bashir had admitted starting the blaze at his printer supply factory in Dundee. The Sherriff Court sentenced him to 13 months in prison today.

“This is a good result for our Major Loss Team. Not only does it emphasise our zero tolerance approach to fraud, it also demonstrate how strongly we collaborate with all our suppliers,” commented James Burge, head of counter fraud at Allianz Commercial.

The fire had occurred on 11 February 2018 in a room storing ink cartridges for printer supplies company Fazteck. The building was owned by a company called Chohan. Both businesses, which were managed by Mr Bashir and his family, filed claims for losses totalling just over £2m.

james burge

However, investigations from Allianz and its partner suppliers quickly established the fire was suspicious. Naked flames had started the blaze, suggesting arson. And CCTV footage showed Mr Bashir emerging from a building where smoke was coming from. Finally, a search of the Fazteck premises recovered policy documents where information on claims pay-outs had been highlighted.

The evidence gathered by Sedgwick and the legal work carried out by BLM contributed to Mr Bashir pleading guilty to wilful fire raising and attempted fraud when his case was heard at the Dundee Sheriff Court.


The information contained in this press release relates to Allianz Insurance plc. Allianz Insurance plc is one of the largest general insurers in the UK and part of the Allianz Group.

About Allianz Holdings plc

Allianz Holdings plc is the non-regulated holding company which owns the principal insurance operations of Allianz SE in Great Britain.

About Allianz

The Allianz Group is one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers with more than 100 million* private and corporate customers in more than 70 countries. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing 790 billion euros on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage 1.7 trillion euros of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we are amongst the leaders in the insurance industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2021, over 150,000 employees achieved total revenues of 148.5 billion euros and an operating profit of 13.4 billion euros for the group.

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Cecile Brisson, PR Consultant

Allianz Insurance

Email:  cecile.brisson@allianz.co.uk 

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