A LLANDEILO man has been given a 12-month prison term, suspended for two years, after he used fake invoices as part of a £300,000 insurance scam for damage to two vehicles.

Richard William Kirkup Lewis, 61, admitted fraud by false representation at Swansea Crown Court on June 17.

Lewis was also ordered to repay £37,464 in costs to insurer NFU Mutual, pay £2,800 in court costs and pay £100 victim surcharge.

In 2013, Lewis’s neighbour was doing some repair work at Lewis’s home when a tractor rolled and crashed into two of Lewis’s catering vans.

The case was passed to detectives in the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department at the City of London Police when investigators suspected false invoices had been provided to them.

When Lewis returned home from working away he claimed against his neighbour's vehicle insurance for the cost of the two catering vans.

In total, Lewis claimed his lost earnings were in the region of £150,000 and that the two vans and equipment were worth in excess of £167,000

Due to the high value of the claims, the insurer appointed an investigator from the Investigation Services team at Cunningham Lindsey but when he went to check the damaged vehicles, Lewis stated he had already sold them to a local scrap metal dealer.

He was asked to provide invoices from when he bought the vans and he provided NFU Mutual with two documents that he said were invoices for the vans.

However, the invoices proved to be fake and found Lewis hadn't purchased them from where he claimed.

Detective Constable Aman Taylor, from the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department said: "It's clear that Lewis lied and went to great lengths to try and support his very large compensation claim.

"Anyone who has supposedly invested over £150,000 in equipment would have surely kept receipts to show their true value.

"Yet Lewis was unable to provide any evidence that supported his claims that the two vans were worth as much as he claimed so he decided to provide fake documents instead.

"His actions were illegal and this should serve as a warning to anyone to think twice before making false insurance claims."