Only half of the fleet insured
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• Alan Blakey and his son Simon, respectively managing director and company secretary of three South Humberside haulage companies, were alleged to have systematically insured only half the vehicles they were running over a period of nearly four years, when they appeared at Grimsby Crown Court.
The Blakeys, Maxihaul (Humberside), McDermott Movements and Roawest Transport all pleaded not guilty to conspiring to obtain insurance services by deception from Eclipse Motor Policies at Lloyds, by falsely representing the size of the fleet and the vehicles operated by the three companies. They also pleaded not guilty to conspiring to use insurance certificates and cover notes with intent to deceive the police and the DTp.
The Blakeys and Maxihaul pleaded not guilty to conspiring to dishonestly obtain money from Eclipse by falsely representing that a vehicle had been involved in an accident, when in fact a different vehicle had been involved. Desmond Farrell QC, prosecuting, said the three companies could for all intents and purposes be regarded as one business. In the period concerned, summer 1983 to early 1987, the defendants had run a substantial fleet varying between 20 and 30 vehicles.
Throughout the period, Farrell alleged, the Blakeys had dishonestly insured only about half the fleet, misrepresenting its size to the insurers by pretending that the vehicles listed for the purpose of the policy were the whole of the fleet.
The prosecution maintained that that was not a mistake but a matter of dishonest policy. The Blakeys had saved themselves tens of thousands of pounds it alleged.
Farrell said that the third charge was an example of how the fraud was operated. An uninsured vehicle was involved in an accident in December 1984. In reporting the accident to their insurers, the Blakeys altered the registration number to that of a covered vehicle.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.