A worker at a vets scammed more than £37,000 in fake pet insurance claims for seven cats, dogs and rabbits that didn't exist. Helen Pearse, 33, took out pet insurance policies with six insurers and made a total of 18 fraudulent claims against them over four years.
She doctored invoices from her bosses as part of evidence for the medical treatment for these fake animals. In most cases, the accountant made up the names and breeds of the animals that she had taken out the policies for, police said.
But Pearse was caught out when she did not register a dog with the veterinary practice when she made claims for fictitious dogs Ripple, a German Wirehaired Pointer, and Pippa, a small mongrel. It was then discovered Pearse made fake claims for dogs called Ciara and Luke, cats named Percy and Piper, plus rabbits Stewart and Ross with five other insurers from January 2018 onwards.
None of these animals existed, except Piper the cat, police said. She worked at Robson and Prescott Vets which has branches across the northeast of England.
Pearse had altered invoices for medical treatment the practice had sent to genuine clients so they appeared to have been issued to her and submitted them to the insurers as evidence for her scam claims. Pearse took out a pet insurance policy with an insurer for dogs Ripple and Pippa on August 18, 2021.
She registered a claim for medical treatment to Pippa two months later and was paid £3,712 from the insurer after she gave an invoice and medical notes from the practice as evidence. Pearse then submitted a further claim for Pippa later that month and received £3,108.
Six months later, Pearse registered another claim worth £3,005 for medical treatment to Ripple. When the insurer contacted the vets practice where she worked to ask about the treatment, staff were unable to find any record of it.
It emerged Pearse made the claim, but had not registered Ripple at the practice. In the week after the false claims were uncovered, the insurer received letters from Pearse, who offered to repay the claims and stated that “these have been paid out incorrectly due to my error”.
But the case was passed to cops and police raided her home in Widdrington, Northumberland, where it emerged she also made false claims for a string of other animals. The practice confirmed the documents Pearse had sent to the insurers did not represent genuine treatments that had taken place.
During her police interview with detectives, Pearse admitted she used her position as a financial officer at the practice to access and edit genuine invoices and medical notes. She stated she owned Piper the cat, but made three false claims for medical treatment on her.
At Newcastle Crown Court Pearse was sentenced to 20 months in jail, suspended for 18 months. She previously pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud by abuse of position at South East Northumberland Magistrates Court on April 13.
Detective Constable Chris Jones, from the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) at City of London Police, said after the sentencing hearing: "Pearse took advantage of the access she had to client invoices as part of her job in order to line her own pockets. After her actions first came to light, we identified that she had been making fraudulent claims since 2018, motivated by her greed to earn more money.
"Submitting documents that you have forged or edited as evidence to your insurer is fraud and, unfortunately for Pearse, she will now have to face the consequence of having a criminal record." Pearse has since paid back the money she was paid from four of the insurers. and a confiscation order, worth £15,024.61, has been made by the courts to cover the money owed to the remaining insurers that must be repaid in a year.
Jon Radford, head of intelligence, investigations and data services at the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), added: "It's alarming that someone who works at a veterinary practice and is trusted to take care of people's pets orchestrated fraud of this scale."
