An insurance broker has been sentenced in the Auckland District Court today to four years and six months’ imprisonment following a Serious Fraud Office prosecution.
Last month, Grant Malcolm Herbert was found guilty by a jury of 17 Crimes Act charges and seven Secret Commissions Act charges.
The former owner and director of the insurance brokering firm Herbert Insurance Group Limited (HIG), had received premiums from clients but failed to forward approximately $2.5 million of this to insurers, in some cases leaving the customers uninsured. He diverted this money to pay operating expenses for HIG.
He had also given an employee of an insured customer secret commissions for referring insurance business to HIG. That company was overcharged about $220,000 for its insurance.
Prior to the trial, Herbert had also pleaded guilty to using a forged document in relation to obtaining a credit facility in the sum of $250,000.
SFO director Julie Read said: “Clients who were uninsured as a result of Mr Herbert’s offences were exposed to a risk of loss many times greater than the cost of the premiums which they paid in good faith. These and the other offences of which he has been convicted represent serious breaches of trust on the part of Mr Herbert. Mr Herbert’s conduct has also had the potential to damage the community’s confidence in dealing with brokers and thereby damaged the interests of all those brokers who act honestly.”
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