An insurance fraudster has been jailed for six and a half years after shooting himself in the chest as part of an insurance scam.
The BBC reports that Philip Morris, 46, from Corwen, Denbighshire, needed an emergency operation to remove a bullet after the incident last year.It sparked a major police hunt, until Morris confessed he was the gunman.He pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, four other insurance frauds and possessing an illegal firearm.This was just one in a string of scams that date back as far as 1995, when Morris sparked another man hunt after claiming to have been shot with an air rifle.It wasn’t until an ambulance was called to an area near a hotel in Llangollen on May 19 last year, when Morris was discovered with a bullet wound to his right shoulder and chest, that alarm bells started ringing.Morris claimed he had been shot by an unknown assailant as he stood by his vehicle. A modified .22 rifle was found nearby.In response, North Wales Police treated the shooting as an attempted murder case, launching a major operation that involved detectives, firearms officers and a police helicopter.Morris needed surgery to remove the bullet and spent several days in the high dependency unit at Wrexham's Maelor Hospital.It was there that he finally confessed to police that he had shot himself with the antique rifle that he had acquired at a car boot sale, having initially claimed he tried to kill himself.Morris later admitted he had made up the gunman story out of embarrassment.But Elen Owen, prosecuting, told Caernarfon Crown Court that police became suspicious of Morris's story after they examined his background.Jailing Morris, Judge Merfyn Hughes QC told him: "You were very lucky indeed to have survived what was a life-threatening injury."The clear purpose of what you did that day would appear to be primarily to obtain compensation but also to attract attention to yourself."According to the BBC, Chief Inspector Iestyn Davies said: "The actions of Philip Morris on the 19 May led to a significant policing response at substantial cost."He only admitted to the injury being self inflicted when he realised the nature of our response to the incident."In the meantime significant steps had been taken to reassure the public of Llangollen and beyond including increased high visibility patrols."Incidents of this nature are extremely rare in north Wales. His sentence today recognises the seriousness of these offences."Manchester debt firm is liquidated owing creditors over £2.2m
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