Fraudster Highland building company boss is jailed after setting fire to steading
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A building company boss who set fire to a residential development to try and claim £400,000 from his insurance company has been jailed for 13 months.
Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald told Michael Maggs (52), of Culbokie, that it was a serious offence "which was a calculated fraud, involving premeditation and planning".
"It was motivated by greed. You knew what you were doing."
Maggs appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court last month and admitted the fraudulent scheme, which involved the three-unit Earlseat Steading development at Moyness, near Nairn.
Maggs was due to stand trial on two charges of creating fraudulent schemes but pleaded guilty to one of them.
His defence counsel, Lewis Kennedy, said his client was a first offender and a background report would be required by Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald.
When he re-appeared for sentence, Mr Kennedy told the court that his client was repaying £20,000-a-month for a second loan secured against the steading and in his wife's name.
He added that Maggs' wife, who was threatened with sequestration, had now left him.
"He was in a state of financial stress at the time," Mr Kennedy said. "The development had run over time and into financial trouble.
"He was unable to make payments for the second loan and that lender was vigorously pursuing payments and forcing a sale as the debts were mounting.
"He saw setting the fire as his way out to retain solvency and save his marriage."
Mr Kennedy added that the property had since been repossessed and sold at below market value.
At a previous hearing, fiscal depute Martina Eastwood told the court that Maggs had made false declarations to Zurich Insurance to get cover.
She said: "He told the company 'there is heavy fencing all the way around it and I have installed CCTV'. He was asked if he would be living there and he told them he would be. He obtained £400,000 rebuild cover."
Ms Eastwood said that in actual fact later investigation revealed that there was no site security or CCTV and he only occasionally lived in a caravan there.
She added that he had taken out another loan secured on Earlseat and was under pressure to sell the steading to repay it.
"On November 29, 2017 at 10pm he set fire to three unfinished buildings," she said. "There was no risk to neighbouring property or persons. He then put in a claim saying it was accidental by unknown means. Zurich investigated and then the police became involved."
