Trio banned after £2 million insurance scam

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned three insurance professionals for their parts in a £2 million fraud.

Timothy Higgins, Clifford Felstead and Ralph Brunswick were all involved in a scheme which defrauded Markel International Insurance Company, QBE Insurance (Europe) and Amalfi Underwriting.

The FSA said Higgins, director and founder of Surety Guarantee Consultants (SGC), would have been fined £600,000 had he not been bankrupt.

SGC, which employed Felstead in a management role, specialised in writing surety bonds. SGC wrote business that exceeded its authorised limits, exposing Markel and QBE to greater liabilities than they had agreed to. SGC made secret profits and withheld over £2m that should have been paid to the insurers, said the FSA.

The firm then produced false documents when audited by insurers and was aided by Brunswick who provided them in the name of a company located in the Isle of Man, where he was employed at the time. 

Margaret Cole (pictured), FSA director of enforcement and financial crime, said the market relied on trust and integrity and that Higgins, Felstead, and Brunswick fell short of the expected standards.

‘The London market relies on the trust and integrity of those who work in it.  All three of these men fell woefully short of the standards expected of them,’ she said. ‘They abused the trust and confidence placed in them by leading London market insurers in order to make a profit for themselves.’