A so-called “ghost-broker” from Barking has been jailed for three years for selling illegal car insurance to criminals.

Fahad Mutabazi Abdulatif, 24, of Harts Lane, was sentenced at the Old Bailey for a total of 18 charges of fraud, money laundering and unauthorised brokering totalling £100,000.

He was found guilty of selling motor insurance policies to criminals – some of whom were disqualified from driving – helping them to facilitate crimes such as drug dealing and burglary, while funding his own champagne lifestyle.

Following a joint investigation by the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) and insurer LV=, Mr Abdulatif was sentenced on Monday, October 12.

The investigation found that, while illegally acting as a broker, he was supplying fraudulent payment details to LV= in order to obtain policy documents for which no valid payment was made.

The insurance company also found him selling a number of polices to new drivers based on false information, which he provided to the insurer.

In total, 107 polices were illegally obtained in a 12-month period from November 2012, resulting in his arrest on October 2 2013, at his home in Barking.

The false insurance broker used several bank details of others unknown to him and without permission, and supplied compromised bank accounts in order to set up direct debits.

Det Con Daniel Dankoff , from the City of London Police’s IFED said: “Abdulatif went to great lengths to sell his bogus car insurance to many who were known criminals and some who were not licensed to drive.

“So called ‘ghost brokers’ put the individuals who have obtained the false policy in danger of prosecution as well as exposing innocent road users to the effects of being involved in an accident with an uninsured driver.

“A confiscation proceeding is also underway and we will now look to recover assets gained”.