The man behind a Shipley company that sold bogus car insurance has been jailed for 14 months.

Tim McCaskill, 30, of Great Horton Road, Great Horton, Bradford, ran a car insurance firm called Castlemire and sold cheap policies to high-risk drivers.

But the policies were bogus and drivers who purchased them were unwittingly driving without any insurance at all.

McCaskill, who was arrested in May last year, was convicted at Leeds Crown Court for Fraudulent Trading (Companies Act) and Possession of Articles For Use in Fraud.

The scam took place in late 2008.

The investigation was one of several conducted by Airedale and North Bradford detectives into insurance-related fraud in the area including a successful prosecution of a ‘cash for crash’ ring who were staging fake car crashes to scam genuine insurance companies.

Airedale and North Bradford Police have now warned those tempted to engage in insurance fraud they are watching.

Acting Detective Sergeant Phil Bates, of Airedale and North Bradford CID, said the judgement of the court in jailing McCaskill was a warning to fraudsters they could expect to lose their liberty.

He said: “We are pleased with the judgement of the court in sentencing McCaskill which should serve as a warning to others tempted to engage in this kind of fraud that it will not be tolerated.

“By selling false insurance fraud in this manner he both deceived drivers and also made them unknowingly and unwittingly commit crime by driving without insurance.

“If any of those drivers had been involved in accidents the other parties would have been at serious jeopardy of recovering their losses so this was a scam which could have left many victims."