Founder Voice of Wales gets suspended jail sentence for insurance scam

Daniel Raymond Morgan (pictured, left) set up the group in Swansea with another activist called Stan Robinson. It is not the first time Morgan has hit the headlines in recent times after his YouTube channel was permanently banned in 2021 for racist content.

Morgan stood as a UKIP candidate for the Senedd in 2021 and following the row over a now discontinued Home Office plan to house asylum seekers in Llanelli’s Stradey Park Hotel, had been touted as the party’s general election candidate in the town’s constituency.

His political future, however, is now in doubt following a conviction for his part in the insurance scam that has tricked many into parting with their money.

Swansea Crown Court heard how a call centre was set up to con people on the back of the PPI scandal. It was responsible for an astonishing 53 million scam phone messages.

The fraudsters promised big payouts in connection with mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance policies but in reality their aim was simply to get victims’ credit card details and steal money from them.

Hundreds of people paid up to £550 each after being tricked by the call centre staff into believing they were due substantial PPI refunds, with many of the victims of the scam being elderly and vulnerable.

Sentencing 16 people involved in the fraud – from directors of the firm to those working the phones – a judge described the aim of the business as “deliberate, planned fraud”.

Lee Reynolds, prosecuting, told the court that the company at the centre of the fraud went by various names including HES Synergy Limited and HES Savings Audit Ltd, and was set up with the aim of taking unlawful advantage of the financial scandal around mis-sold PPI.

Further commenting, Reynolds described the fraud as “specifically and carefully planned” to give victims the false impression that they were entitled to a significant PPI refund and to get them to pay a fee to process their claims.

The court heard the victims of the scam were led to believe the business had specific knowledge regarding their individual finances and had access to information about their payment of PPI as well as knowledge of how much they were entitled to by way of a refund. In reality those behind the fraud had no such information or knowledge.

Judge Huw Rees said the call centre operation had been a “deliberate, planned fraud carefully structured and fraudulent from its inception” and at the heart of the conspiracy lay the defendants’ greed which “overrode any compassion or concern” for the victims.

Addressing the defendants Judge Rees said they had:

“Routinely misled people about the prospect of PPI refunds and peddled blatant lies on the phones, noting the lies tripped easily off the tongue for them.”

“Not only had the fraud affected individual victims who had been left with a feeling of violation but had affected the wider public’s respect and confidence in the industry.”

Nine admitted conspiracy to commit fraud, six – including Morgan – were convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud following a trial and one admitted money laundering.

Morgan, 38, of Lamberts Road, SA1 development, Swansea was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for 12 months with a rehabilitation course and a mental health treatment requirement.