Man cleared of burglary claim fraud
A multimillionaire has been cleared of trying to defraud his insurance company over goods stolen from his mansion during a burglary.
Toby Whittaker, a property developer from Lancashire, was accused of lying to claim insurance on a £120,000 Rolex watch.
The diamond-encrusted men's platinum watch was part of a £400,000-haul of items stolen in December 2008. He apparently had told police the watch was taken out of his bedroom but later told his insurance company the watch had been stolen from a safe.
Whittaker, 32, from Read, was also accused of conspiring to create a fake report which claimed his house alarm was on when he was burgled but a Preston Crown Court jury acquitted him of both fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.
Whittaker had told the court that his family was threatened with kidnapping before the burglary happened.
His home was burgled again in February this year when he was beaten up and threatened by six masked men armed with a knife and a crowbar.
Dylan Harvey Residential, a buy-to-let firm owned by Whittaker, went bust last year. About 500 people each lost as much as £20,000 from deposits they had put down on flats in the North West area - several of them are trying to recover their money through the courts.