Our client, a gentlemen in his 20’s, found himself in financial difficulty in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. He used all his savings to purchase a car, requiring repairs, and subsequently became unemployed. Unable to afford the repair bill and in financial distress, he made a poor judgment – submitting two false insurance claims with two different insurance companies and lodging a false police report in support of the claims.
Our client was charged with two counts of attempted fraud and one charge of creating a false belief. He was a family man with an unblemished record of outstanding and awarded service to the community. While our client did not, in fact, obtain the insured amount, his actions were of a serious nature and ordinarily attracted terms of immediate imprisonment. We were able to persuade a District Court judge to refrain from imposing a term of immediate imprisonment and instead suspend the term of imprisonment in respect of one count and place our client on an intensive supervision order in respect of the remaining counts.