Two years in prison for an insurance agent for falsifying policies

The High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) has upheld the two-year prison term given to an insurance company’s exclusive agent for repeatedly making false business documents. The court decided that she had adequately demonstrated that she used a client’s personal information to sign up for many car insurance policies without their permission. The court turned down every argument made in the appeal and upheld the sentence given by Section VII of the Provincial Court of Alicante, which is located in Elche. The TSJ has made the decision public.

The ruling says that the defendant knowingly and intentionally lied in business dealings and that it is not essential to show a specific economic motivation for the offence to be considered complete. Based on what is known, the defendant was the company’s only agent from 2010 until October 2018. From June to September 2018, while she was still doing business with the company, she utilised the personal information of a former client to sign up for five automobile insurance policies. This client had previously arranged a life insurance policy with her.

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The insurance was given to the client as the policyholder, but neither he nor any of the others listed as declared drivers signed or approved it. Sometimes, the information given didn’t match what the Directorate General of Traffic had on file. One of the covered cars got into a bad accident in Morocco, and the insurance company had to pay €18,984.04 for damage and injuries, even though there were problems with the policy and the “green card.”

The victim started getting accident reports for cars that weren’t his. Because he had so many insurance policies in his name, he couldn’t get new ones because the costs went up a lot. The Provincial Court of Alicante found the defendant guilty of continuing to falsify business documents and sentenced him to two years in prison, with the additional penalty of being barred from voting for the duration of the sentence and a ten-month fine of six euros per day.

The ruling also says that the contracts are void, that the legal costs must be paid, and that the affected client will get 1,000 euros for moral damages and 18,984.04 euros for the insurance company, plus legal interest.

The defence challenged the sentence, saying that the crime’s subjective element wasn’t there because there was no proof of a clear purpose to make money illegally or hurt someone. They used Supreme Court case law and the principle of in dubio pro reo to argue that the conviction went against the presumption of innocence because there was no evidence of fraud. They also said that the evidence was not properly evaluated, questioned who wrote the fake documents, and claimed that other people may have utilised their professional credentials to issue the policies.

One of the covered cars got into a bad collision in Morocco, which made the insurance company pay 18,984.04 euros.

Want to change the truth

The High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) threw out all the reasons for the appeal and made one important point clear: unlike fabricating private documents, falsifying commercial documents does not require a specific purpose to profit or cause harm. The Court said again that it is a formal crime, and all the perpetrator has to do is act with the knowledge and intent to change reality. They don’t have to prove that they had a motive to deceive or get rich. “The crime of falsifying public, official, or commercial documents is a formal offence of altering the truth, whose subjective element requires nothing more than the awareness and intent to change reality.” So, the court thinks it’s not important that a specific fraudulent intent wasn’t shown because that’s not part of the crime that applies.

The Court says that this is a formal crime, and all the person who did it has to do is be conscious of what they are doing and want to change reality.

Dates

The High Court of Justice agrees with the Provincial Court’s decision about who wrote the work. It stresses that the accused was still connected to the insurance company when the policies were issued, which is backed up by witnesses, internal documents, and posts on social media. The Court thinks the claim that third parties used her work credentials is “absurd” because these were personal, non-transferable passwords that were made to stop this kind of abuse. In addition, some policyholders stated in court that the defendants directly administered the plans.

The court finds that the defendant was in charge of the crime and carried out a strategy that was always in place, using the same opportunity and the same personal information to execute numerous forgeries in a row. The High Court of Justice decides to throw out the appeal and uphold the sentence based on these reasons. Even while the conviction is sustained at this level, the verdict leaves open the possibility of launching an appeal to the Supreme Court.