Select a region
Two men in their seventies have been sent to prison for conspiring to commit fraud amounting to £3.3million at one of Jersey’s oldest and best-known insurers between 2004 and 2017.
In the Royal Court today, Roy Anthony Jeanne (73) and Michael John Timms (74) were jailed for nine years and four years respectively.
Jeanne was the former General Manager of Jersey Mutual Insurance Society, whilst Timms was a commercial tenant of the insurance company.
As Jersey Mutual's long-term supplier of marketing services, Timms helped Jeanne defraud the insurance company by falsifying invoices in return for lucrative contracts with the firm.
Jeanne stole in excess of £3 million from Jersey Mutual, whilst Timms received £160,000 for his role.
The former General Manager was described as "a lifelong and avid gambler", and used the fraudulent funds to fund this habit.
By 2017, Jeanne had gambled over £5.4m and secured winnings of over £3.2m.
He also used the money stolen from Jersey Mutual to pay off the mortgage on his Spanish villa, 'Casa Jeannie'.
Meanwhile, Timms used his share to maintain the lifestyle he was accustomed to.
In an email sent to his wife in 2016, Timms explained that Jersey Mutual “pays for everything”.
Pictured: Jersey Mutual's former office, where the business was based at the time the investigation launched.
The sentencing of Jeanne and Timms follows a lengthy and complex financial crime investigation named Operation Lavender.
The criminal investigation was launched at Jersey Mutual in 2018 after a suspected fraud spanning years was uncovered.
Operation Lavender saw specialist financial investigators, supported by forensic accountants, investigating offending by Jeanne and Timms across a 13-year period.
Jeanne was charged with and pleaded guilty to three counts of larceny servant, falsification of accounts, money laundering and conspiracy to commit fraud which amounted to £3.3 million.
Timms was charged with and pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud.
Detective Inspector Aiden Quenault of the Joint Financial Crimes Unit said: “This case reflects the complexity of financial crime investigation but also highlights the dedication, perseverance and skill of the investigators and the Law Officers Department prosecutors involved in the case.
“The States of Jersey Police are committed to thoroughly and diligently investigating all types of offending and financial crime is no different; those seeking to benefit from abusing their position in business and laundering their illicit gains will be identified, investigated and prosecuted.
"Every effort will be made to confiscate and return any proceeds of crime to victims.”
In a statement, Jersey Mutual said that they noted the sentencing with “satisfaction”, adding that it had been a “long wait for justice”.
They continued: “The society and its members placed their trust in Mr Jeanne. He betrayed that trust, and Mr Timms conspired to help him do so.
“The society now awaits the decision of the court in relation to any compensation order granted, from which the society can recover as much of the stolen money from Mr Jeanne and Mr Timms as we can.
“It is important to note that these misdeeds never jeopardised the society’s financial stability, nor led to any member suffering any losses of benefit.
“Nevertheless, we are taking this legal action in an attempt to recover funds that belong to the society.”
The spokesperson added: “The society recognises, and deeply regrets, that Mr Jeanne was able to misuse his authority to defraud the society, in collaboration with Mr Timms. Since the fraud was uncovered, we have taken appropriate action to minimise any possibility that this could happen again.
“This has included the commissioning of independent third-party reviews of both the compliance and governance and accounting functions, whose recommendations we fully adopted and integrated into our policies and procedures.”
His Majesty's Attorney General, Mark Temple KC said: “Securing convictions in this very complex and important case, clearly demonstrates the Economic Crime and Confiscation Unit’s ability to successfully prosecute complex fraud and money laundering, as well as the importance of having specialist financial crime prosecutors based in the Law Officers’ Department.
"These prosecutions are instrumental in bringing these very difficult cases to a just conclusion.”
Pictured top: Roy Jeanne (left) and Michael Timms (right).
Fraud probe at Jersey Mutual still ongoing... four years on (2022)
Criminal investigation at 149-year-old insurance company (2018)
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.