A Cannondale Topstone bike in action
A young City solicitor has been struck off for making a fraudulent insurance claim after his £1,700 bike was stolen during a house move.
Kieran Ferguson admitted dishonestly making some misleading statements but argued that there were exceptional circumstances meaning that he should not be struck off, including the murder of a close friend.
But the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) found that his dishonesty “was not confined to an immediate reaction to the theft, nor was it a fleeting lapse.
“It continued over a period during which Mr Ferguson had opportunities to reflect, correct the position, and tell the truth.
“The fact that the dishonesty was not sophisticated and was capable of being discovered from the insurer’s records, did not materially reduce its seriousness for the purposes of the exceptional circumstances assessment.”
The SDT said the matters mentioned in mitigation by counsel for Mr Ferguson, such as the background of “a confluence of multiple significant personal stressors”, did not “sufficiently relate to, or explain, the dishonest conduct found proved”.
Mr Ferguson, born in 1995 and admitted in 2020, worked for Ashurst from June 2021, specialising in finance.
Zurich Insurance reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in September 2023 that he had submitted a fraudulent insurance claim relating to a Cannondale Topstone bike worth £1,699 and made false statements in support of it.
Mr Ferguson had an insurance policy with Laka Bicycle Insurance, underwritten by Zurich, for a Cannondale Systemsix Ultergra bike, valued at £2,500. The policy only covered only the Systemsix, and photos and receipts had to be provided.
The solicitor’s other bike, the Topstone, was stolen on a Sunday evening during a house move in April 2022. Within a couple of hours, Mr Ferguson had submitted an online claim for a stolen bike along with a video.
Only 10 minutes later, he amended his insurance policy online to add the stolen Topstone. Laka referred the case to Zurich for further enquiries, which accused Mr Ferguson of making a deliberate attempt at fraud, giving that he stated that he had changed the policy to include the Topstone ahead of the move.
The insurer decided to add his details to the Insurance Fraud Register.
Counsel for the lawyer said the facts and timeline were “substantially not in dispute” and the “central issue” was Mr Ferguson’s state of mind when making the claim, which came in the wake of witnessing the theft.
He said Mr Ferguson understood that his insurance policy provided cover “for any bike to the value of £2,500” and his claim was “the result of a mistaken, careless, and incorrect understanding, but not a dishonest one”.
Mr Ferguson added the Topstone to the policy to “assist in the administration and consideration of the claim”.
The tribunal did not accept this, finding the explanation “not credible”. It said Mr Ferguson knew the Topstone was not covered and attempted to make the claim appear valid after the event.
“If Mr Ferguson genuinely believed that the policy covered any bike up to the insured value, there was no need for him to amend the policy at all,” it said.
It also found that he acted dishonestly by deliberately making untrue or misleading statements to his insurer.
The tribunal “gave weight to the matters relied upon in mitigation, but concluded that, whether considered individually or cumulatively, they did not amount to exceptional circumstances”.
Mr Ferguson was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £20,800.
Leave a Comment