Desperate Kiwis Torch Assets For Cash

Sunday Star Times 20 June 2010

BURNING DOWN the house. And the car. And the boat. You name it, New Zealanders have been setting it on fire in often desperate attempts to cope with the recession.

Statistics New Zealand figures show that the number of arsons has increased by 20% over the past two years to 2768, while the number of cases solved has decreased by 12%.

Ron McQuilter, of Paragon Investigations, one of the country's largest private investigators, says much of that increase can be put down to fraudulent insurance claims.

Insurance Council figures suggest that each policy holder is paying up to $100 extra a year to compensate for fraud.

Earlier this month, Auckland married couple Antonio Banderas Carlos and Khalida Husen lost their appeal against one count of arson and one of attempting to gain a pecuniary advantage after causing a 2008 explosion which destroyed their restaurant, Cafe Hasan Baba, in Howick.

In sentencing them to four years' imprisonment each, High Court Justice Judith Potter heard they were in financial difficulty at the time they lit the fire and hoped to claim on insurance.

On the night of the fire, Carlos and Husen asked customers to pay for their meals in cash because, they said, the Eftpos machine had broken. They left the restaurant shortly after 2am and just before 3am a passerby reported a flash followed by a large explosion, which caused the windows and doors of the cafe to be thrown across the street. No one was injured, but the insurance company refused to pay out without a police investigation.

McQuilter says his company alone has seen a surge in the number of fraudulent insurance claims because of fire.

"Cars are a biggie, there's the occasional boat and certainly houses. People will go to the extreme. We'd be doing half-a-dozen [arson cases] right now."

Last month, he investigated a case of a man who couldn't pay his mortgage and so set fire to his house. But he had taken some "precious items" and stored them in the outside shed, making the fraud easy to spot.

"These are people who are not criminals, they are not seasoned criminals.

"They've found themselves in a position and have decided to go this route... The recession has definitely driven insurance fraud. In fact, it's still driving it. People are still struggling." Some insurance fraudsters are hiring others to do their dirty work for as little as $200.

"There's an awful lot of cars being burnt out. They'll leave the key somewhere for someone to take the car away and burn it.

"Just over the last couple of years we've seen a lot more insurers prosecuting people."

The penalties for fraud quickly rack up, as offenders are ordered to pay for the cost of their prosecution, as well as reparation.

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)