"The offences were sophisticated, detailed, well planned and carried out over a long period of time."
During the 18 week trial, the jury heard how the Anthony McGrath’s mounting debts led him to carry out the elaborate fraud in the hope of receiving a large insurance pay out.
He attempted to dupe his insurance company out of £180,000 by staging a burglary at a house he and his wife were renting in 2015.
He claimed almost 100 valuable items had been stolen, including a Persian rug worth £35,000, and even shipped some of the items to his family home in Ireland.
The fake burglary then led police to uncover three counts of mortgage fraud totalling over £1 million. False tax returns in the couple’s name had been sent to the bank and copies were discovered in their study.
The jury also heard how Anthony McGrath compulsively lied in a bid to con as much money as possible out of a number of different people.
This included trying to get a better price for the sale of antiques by telling the dealer he had given his time, and thousands of pounds, to a Syrian children's refugee charity, faking a salary report from a hospital he had stopped working at three months earlier, and lying to a potential buyer of a holiday home saying that the contract was late because he was working in Jordan for a French medical charity.
Judge Barbara Mensah said: "The offences were sophisticated, detailed, well planned and carried out over a long period of time.
"McGrath has demonstrated pathological levels of dishonesty and arrogance, and took every opportunity to attack and defraud his insurance company."
Detective Constable Dave Brecknock commented: “This was an incredibly complex three-year investigation and a lengthy court process, with the trial lasting more than four months, so I’m really pleased we have now reached a conclusion, and finally can say that justice has been done.
“Despite the complexities of the case, the motive was simple – this conniving and deceitful man intentionally broke the law in order to gain hundreds of thousands of pounds. But this goes to show that no matter who you are, how clever you think you might be, you cannot get away with breaking the law."
