Insurance fraud expert used his skills to steal £400,000

A FRAUD expert used his specialist skills to pocket more than £400,000 from his employers over a six-year period.

Gordon Murray, a fraud co-ordinator for insurance firm National Farmer's Union Mutual, duped friends and family - including two police officers - into helping him with the scheme.

The 30-year-old encouraged them to invest in a fake share plan so that he could use their bank accounts to deposit cheques which funded his "luxury lifestyle".

He made a total of 156 fraudulent transactions and was only caught when an audit highlighted discrepancies in the firm's accounts.

Murray, from Airdrie, admitted forming a fraudulent scheme to obtain 409,572 from the firm's Glasgow office between July 2002 and January 2008 at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday.