Delivery drivers involved in LFT fraud told behaviour was 'appalling' 

Exploited government's Covid system for financial gain

Two delivery drivers who fraudulently obtained more than 30,000 lateral flow tests at the height of the Covid pandemic have been told their behaviour was ‘appalling’.

Stephen Keig and Lucy Randle-Heslop exploited the Manx Government’s system, which offered residents free Coronavirus tests, by self-generating work in order to gain financially.

Their actions were only uncovered when hundreds of tests were found dumped in a skip at the Eastern Civic Amenity Site.

At Douglas Courthouse yesterday (11 May) the pair were sentenced after previously admitting committing fraud by false representation between 15 August and 11 October 2021.

Torpedo

Keig, who has been on remand at the Isle of Man Prison since November last year, was described by his advocate as having ‘torpedoed’ his life.

The 41-year-old, and his 39-year-old co-accused, were self-employed drivers who were being paid £1, by Manx Independent Carriers, each time they delivered the LFTs.

In August 2021 the company had secured the government contract to fulfil the delivery of the tests, six days a week, directly to people’s homes.

The court heard an investigation, launched after the discovery of the dumped LFT’s, showed a number of suspicious requests had been made which were later traced to Keig and Randle-Heslop.

CCTV also showed Keig unloading the bin bags into the skip from a van which was formerly registered to Randle-Heslop.

Warrants

Police searched Randle-Heslop’s home, on Ballabrooie Avenue in Douglas, and recovered 2,300 lateral flow tests.

She told officers she’d been stockpiling them due to her ‘paranoia’ over contracting Covid-19 and was routinely visiting chemists to secure more for her own use.

Officers who searched Keig’s home recovered 2,700 testing kits alongside 106 parcels which should have been delivered on behalf of Hermes; a further 321 were recovered from a storage unit.

The total value of the undelivered goods was £9,807.32p.

Analysis of his electronic devices – which proved Keig and Randle-Heslop had been working together to fraudulently obtain the testing kits – also recovered 19 indecent images of children.

Mitigation

The court heard Keig had ordered 11,000 LFTs between August and October with Randle-Heslop ordering 19,000.

Keig’s advocate said his client had been able to exploit the government system by making around 400 false orders as there had been no ‘checks and balances’ in place.

“That was entirely dishonest from the outset – my client doesn’t shy away from that,” he added. “He felt that no-one would be directly hurt.”

Addressing the theft of the parcels – which Keig also admitted – he said this was not dishonest from the start saying it was due to his client's disorganisation.

Keig had told police previously the parcels had been wrongly sorted and he was supposed to have returned them to the sorting office but due to the ‘overwhelming’ number which had built up he hadn’t.

In addition Keig's advocate said the indecent images of children had been downloaded at a time when his client’s life was ‘completely out of control’ adding he’d been seeking ‘fantasy and escapism’.

Randle-Heslop’s mitigation was provided in writing and was not disclosed in open court.

Committing an act against public justice

Keig and Randle-Heslop also admitted conspiring together to commit perjury between 14 August and 11 November 2021.  

They altered bank statements which Randle-Heslop was due to submit to Douglas Courthouse following a small claims judgement.

Sentence

Sentencing the pair Deemster Graeme Cook said the offences had been committed ‘at a time of serious Covid’.

“This was at a time when the Isle of Man was doing its best,” he told them. “You took 30,000 of those tests away. It was an appalling thing for you both to get involved with.”

Jailing Keig, who had no previous convictions, to 25 months in custody he also placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years and imposed a 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Telling Randle-Heslop he was prepared to take ‘a more lenient view’ he imposed a 12-month custodial sentence suspended for 18 months.

She will also be under an 18-month Suspended Sentence Supervision Order.