A police worker tried to get thousands of pounds from an insurance company by falsely claiming he was a passenger when his father had an accident, a court heard.

Asif Hussain, 32, who worked as a civilian for West Yorkshire Police, processing notices of prosecution for road traffic offences before losing his job, tried to get between £3,000 and £5,000 from the insurers by claiming he was in the car when he was not, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

The court heard Hussain, who worked for the force from 2002, had been cautioned in 2012 for obtaining personal data without permission from a West Yorkshire Police computer.

Prosecutor Bronia Hartley said Hussain’s father, Mehrban Hussain, was involved in a road traffic accident in Toller Lane in March 2009. He was the only person in the vehicle.

Two years later his son made a personal injury claim, saying he was a passenger at the time. He told a doctor he had developed pain in his back, neck and shoulder following the accident.

The insurers became suspicious and claims investigators went to Mehrban Hussain’s address. He made a lengthy statement in which he said his son was in the vehicle. Police became involved and both men were arrested.

Miss Hartley said Asif Hussain, of Aberford Road, Girlington, Bradford, also defrauded an insurance company out of £1,172 by repeatedly asserting his vehicle was kept at a false location, to reduce his insurance premiums.

He was convicted of three charges of fraud in relation to that, and then pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, in connection with the accident.

His 64-year-old father, of Kensington Street, Girlington, was convicted of that charge.

Judge Jonathan Rose told Asif Hussain he was a “disgrace” to his family and community.

“You were employed by West Yorkshire Police at the time of these offences, in a position of trust – trust that you abused when you misused police computers,” the judge said.

“You made concerted efforts to defraud insurance companies, first by lying about where your motor vehicle was kept in order to make savings on the insurance you had to pay, and then by taking advantage of an unfortunate accident for which your father was responsible by making a wholly false claim for personal injury when you were not even in the car.

“Quite apart from the criminality, your shame should be the greater for dragging your father into that particular crime.”

Judge Rose added: “When you defraud an insurance company, you defraud the public, from the very wealthy to the very poor, because the losses sustained by the insurance companies have to be made up by increased insurance premiums for everybody else.”

He sentenced Asif Hussain to a total of 14 months imprisonment suspended for two years, and ordered him to carry out 180 hours unpaid work for the community. Mehrban Hussain was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years, with a two-month curfew.