Surgeon and GP wife ‘staged £180,000 burglary of their £1m home’ after renovation left them ‘drowning in debt’
Cops believe Anthony McGrath, 45, faked the burglary because his spending was 'spiralling out of control'
A HIGH-flying surgeon staged a break-in on his own £1.1million home to claim back on the insurance, a court heard.
Anthony McGrath, 45, faked the robbery to recoup the family’s massive spending which was “spiralling out of control”, it has been claimed.
He and wife Anne-Louise, 44, were said to be in “dire financial straights” as they refurbished their seven-bedroom house in St Albans.
They were also paying £2,400-a-month on a five-bedroom cottage in Bedfordshire while the place was being done up.
A jury heard how McGrath, who has four private-school educated children, reported the burglary at the rented home in 2015.
He claimed 95 items including a £35,000 Persian rug, two clocks, antiques, artwork, jewellery and 19th Century red marble fireplace.
Detectives found McGrath and his GP wife were “tens of thousands” in debt, the reported.
They also found he hired a van and drove it to his family’s home in Dublin at the time of the robbery.
Officers searched the Irish property and found several of the items the doctor had reported as stolen.
Prosecutor Charlene Sumnall said: “In a nutshell, this case is all about greed.
“The Crown’s case is that these offences were motivated by the defendants’ desperate need for money.
“They were in dire financial straits and resorted to dishonest and fraudulent means to alleviate their pressing financial problems.”
The couple apparently married in 2009 and moved to London when McGrath got a job at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.
They funded the £1.1million property with a £825,000 mortgage and later raised another £135,000 with a re-mortgage.
The couple are understood to have fallen into deep arrears on the rent but they kept spending lavishly on the St Albans renovation.
McGrath reportedly denies four charges of fraud and one of preventing the course of justice while his wife denies five fraud charges and one of perverting the course of justice.
The case continues.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours