A schoolboy fraudster has been jailed for selling fake car insurance on Gumtree from his bedroom to unsuspecting customers - who were left driving illegally.
Investigators discovered Azeem Hussain, then aged just 16, was 'ghost broking' and selling false policies via adverts placed on the selling website.
Teams from three police forces worked together to uncover the full extent of his criminal activity.
Hussain, now aged 19, was jailed for 12 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court, having previously pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation. His deception first came to light in July 2013 when a driver who unwittingly used Hussain’s online service to insure his van was stopped by police in Northern Ireland.
Checks revealed it was uninsured, but the driver protested and said he paid £200 into a bank account for the Gumtree advertised policy.
The case was eventually passed on to the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), part of the City of London Police, where officers identified the account as belonging to Hussain.
