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Bouncing from lavish lifestyle to insurance scam to court

Posted On: Feb. 26, 2019 12:18 PM CST

insurance scam

Diamonds. Watches. Laptop computer. Bouncy castle.

That’s just a few losses mentioned in falsified insurance documents filed by a famous chef from Liverpool, England, who is now serving a prison sentence in Australia for his role in a $1 million insurance scam that involved the reporting of numerous home burglaries, Liverpool’s Echo online newspaper reported Sunday.

Fraud investigators were tipped off by the magnitude of claims, and fake documents, and not necessarily that a bouncy castle was reported to have been stolen among diamond bracelets and Rolex watches, the news outlet reported.

Jahan Mahmoodshahi, chef and manager of a popular restaurant in Waterloo, moved to Perth, Australia, with his brother — also serving a prison sentence — but could not maintain his lifestyle after his restaurant career there failed.

So the duo started reporting a string of burglaries in 2015, and filing hefty insurance claims as a way to pay bills, fabricating documents and sales receipts, the newspaper reported.

Detectives began to realize that documents used to support the insurance claims were fabricated, and that the same documents were used to substantiate several claims, according to the news outlet, which added that the brothers will be eligible for parole later this year.