A GYM owner staged a fake burglary and caused damage worth nearly £25,000  after smashing up his own business in an insurance fraud.

Armed forces veteran Shaun Charters claimed his Morpeth-based gym Body  Mechanix had saved his life after he suffered a heart attack aged just 43.

But in 2011 he enlisted the help of an old army friend to orchestrate an  insurance scam in which he destroyed every bathroom in the property and “stole”  gym equipment worth £32,000.

Toilets, basins and shower cubicles were all smashed during the fake raid  which caused extensive flood damage to the gym on Coopies Field, Coopies Lane,  Morpeth, Northumberland.

In total he fraudulently claimed more than £55,000 in insurance.

Now the 48-year-old, of North View, Bedlington Station, has been jailed for  nine months after he admitted making a false insurance claim.

Last night Det Sgt Lorraine Wardle, of Northumbria Police’s Major Crime Team,  said: “This has been a complex investigation into a large-scale fraud.

“Such crimes are far from victimless – as well as taking up valuable police  time and resources, they cost insurance companies money, which pushes insurance  premiums up for law-abiding citizens.”

Charters contacted police on February 6, 2011, claiming thieves had forced  their way into his gym through a fire exit before trashing the property.

A forensic team analysed a sample of blood on a piece of broken sink and  discovered the DNA belonged to Derek Robertson, who had known Charters from  their time in the forces.