Musician swindled £35k in sickness insurance while playing in a band called Sticky Fingers
A FRAUDSTER swindled £35,000 in sickness insurance while playing in a band called Sticky Fingers, a court heard.
Musician and DJ Steve Shaw insisted he was so depressed he could not face leaving home let alone work.
But investigators caught him playing keyboards for the comedy band at a club.
Inquiries also revealed he had been working as a DJ while making bogus claims for three years, Newport Crown Court was told.
Shaw, 55, of Cwmbran, Gwent, admitted fraud and was jailed for 18 months.
Judge Martin Fitton, QC, said the fraudster had shown no remorse for the “consistently deliberate” scam.
Surveillance, including video, confirmed Shaw was seen active, out and about, and shopping
Shaw had worked for the UK arm of multi-national roofing and insulation company and was part of a group income insurance protection policy.
In 2001, he made a genuine claim after he was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, the court heard.
He lost his job five years later but continued to receive payments from insurance giants Unum.
Investigators discovered his was making bogus claims between January 2013 and January 2016, the court heard.
He was shadowed by a surveillance team who watched him playing for Sticky Fingers in Cardiff in March last year.
The private eyes also confirmed he had been working as DJ Stevie Shaw at a club in Cardiff for seven years.
Jason Howells, prosecuting, said: “Surveillance, including video, confirmed Shaw was seen active, out and about, and shopping.”
In a report to the judge, Probation Service workers concluded Shaw had no remorse for his crime.
But John Stokes, defending, said Shaw was “fully remorseful.”
He told Judge Fitton: “There has been a crumbling of mental health over a number of decades.”
Shaw is set to lose his home in order to pay back the money and will be “genuinely at risk” in jail, said Mr Stokes.
But Judge Fitton accepted Shaw’s initial claim in 2001 was genuine. But the fraudster was not as ill as he claimed from late 2012.
Shaw had failed to show “a degree of remorse” when interviewed by the Probation Service, the judge added.