Saturday, June 07, 2014

The Unlikely Story of the Unluckiest Boy in the Whole Wide World

I had the rare pleasure, Dear Reader, of recently investigating several claims made by one Toby Hardy* who, if you were to believe the version of events as depicted by him, would have to be the Unluckiest Boy in the Whole Wide World.

If only he could be believed.

His story goes like this...

Some six months ago his landlady, the indomitable Mrs Wang*, phoned Hardy at work to tell him that her house had been burgled and that many of his electronic possessions (computer, camera, hard drive etc) had also been taken.

No worries, Hardy phones his insurer who replace the stolen items tout de suite. All well and good except that the replacement laptop, couriered from a computer store, does not arrive. Hardy calls the store to follow the matter up and they despatch a second laptop.

Which also does not arrive.

Finally, Hardy goes to the store in person and is given a different model as they had run out of the previous.

A few short months later, Hardy parks his vehicle up on a major road with the intention of selling it. He sets off to work on foot, is picked up by a colleague 'Bill', and returns in the evening to find that his vehicle has been stolen.

The insurer pays out around $30,000.

Then, another few months later, and somewhat reminiscent of the first event, Hardy is again phoned by Mrs Wang while he is at work as the house has been burgled for a second time. But this time Mrs Wang went into Hardy's room to survey the loss for herself and noted that while major items like the 42" TV had been taken, his camera and external hard drive were still lying around.

So it came as a complete surprise to her when she overheard Hardy include the camera and hard drive when reporting the loss to the police and, later, the insurer. Mrs Wang phoned the police and told them that there was something amiss in Hardy's story and she went back into his room and found the items, which he had since packed away in a suitcase.

Well, Hardy was arrested on charges of making a false complaint and spent the night in the cells before being released and finding out he'd been turfed out onto the street by Mrs Wang. She also found a large quantity of needles, point bags containing a white powder residue, and bottles and bottles of methadone pills (prescripted by a number of different doctors) and was not amused.

The insurer was subsequently informed of this turn of events and decided to look into Hardy's previous claims given the apparant dishonesty, which is where my involvement begins.

So I first interview Mrs Wang and learn several interesting pieces of information...

Firstly, that she purchased a laptop from Hardy after the first buglary in lieu of rent. He had an identical second laptop and had told her that they were replacements for the stolen computer. This laptop was still in her possession.

Secondly, Mrs Wang was unaware that Hardy's vehicle had been stolen. He had told her, over a month after the alleged theft, that he had sold it and he said the same to several family members. Also, she is adamant that the vehicle had been still parked up at home for several weeks until she went away for a birthday holiday weekend, several weeks after the date of reported theft.

But that's not all.

I also confirmed with Hardy's employers that he wasn't working on the day his vehicle was stolen.

And then there was the other revelation that Toby Hardy was also known as Toby Gray*, under which name he had several prior criminal convictions.

Convictions not disclosed to the insurer at time of taking out the policy or when making the three claims, when specifically asked.

Okay, so I arranged an interview with Hardy. Naturally, I did not tell him about what information I already possessed and allowed him to take me through the events in his own words. He reiterated the story about both burglaries and the vehicle theft, also commented on not receiving the first two replacement laptops sent out after the first burglary. He also confirmed parking his vehicle up prior to going to work and also that he had no prior criminal convictions or was currently on any active charges. I couldn't help but notice, he also left out filling in the part of the disclosure form asking for any previously known names or aliases.

I have to admit that I thoroughy enjoyed the rest of the interview where I slowly turned Hardy's own words against him, asking him to clarify or explain previous statements that he had just provided with the information that I had to the contrary.

His sliences grew longer as he struggled to come up with explanations and his fidgeting more pronounced.

Apparantly the police had it all wrong - he found the hard drive and camera after he'd made the complaint and insurance claim but didn't get the opportunity to inform them of this before he was arrested. But he couldn't explain why he had been still maintaining, some twenty minutes earlier, that those very items had been stolen.

And when confronted about telling me he'd gone to work the day of the vehicle theft - but his employer confirmed he didn't work that day at all - he then stated he sometimes did gardening work for cash and that 'Bill' was the person he worked for that day but he couldn't recall where he did this work, or have any contact details for Bill.

However, he did finally come clean about receiving one of the replacement laptops. I told him that I'd traced the serial number of that laptop and asked him to guess where that led me? A small lie of my own, I'll have to admit, as the retail outlet did not record the serials of goods shipped. He continued to deny receiving the first laptop though, and accused Mrs Wang of making things up.

Then he finally admitted that he did have another name, Gray, and that yes he did have criminal convictions under that name but he didn't disclose them out of 'embarrasment' not because he was trying to obfuscate his criminal past.

Makes no difference, buddy, it's still fraud. And I just don't believe you. 

I don't know what has become of Hardy. The last I heard, he was due in Court on a number of charges relating to this, but that was before the insurer had his later admissions. I'm asuming further charges will be pending and that he will be asked to repay all monies previously paid out to him earlier as he had failed to disclose his convictions when asked.

So it wasn't so much a case of being the unluckiest, but rather the stupidest, boy in the whole wide world.

* The usual disclaimer about not their real names etc etc

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