A Liverpool taxi driver who invented dozens of dead dogs to defraud pet insurers has been handed a suspended prison sentence, after struggling financially when his cab kept breaking down.
Robert Cretu, 40, of Lapwing Road in Kirkby, submitted 30 fraudulent claims to five separate insurers between December 2023 and August 2025, netting a total of £31,700. Every one of the claims involved dogs that never existed, with Cretu inventing increasingly tragic ends for them — including one dog he claimed had leapt from Blackpool Pier into the sea, and another supposedly struck by a lorry during a trip to the Lake District. Most of the fabricated deaths followed the same pattern: a dog “usually hit by a car.” Cretu backed up the claims with forged documents and fake veterinary notes.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that Cretu admitted five counts of fraud by false representation. He was handed a 20-month custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months, along with a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 20 days.
Passing sentence, Judge Gary Woodhall told Cretu: “You made multiple applications to those insurers… Those insurance companies and the insurance business generally has to invest heavily to try to stop the sort of things that you did. That increases fees for everybody else.”
Cases like this matter well beyond the individual driver involved — insurance fraud pushes up premiums for everyone in the trade, at a time when rising costs are already a constant pressure point for taxi and private hire operators.
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