SINGAPORE: After efficiently inflating the price of her broken baggage in an insurance coverage declare, a girl launched into a sequence of fraudulent journey claims totaling greater than S$14,000.
Siti Saliha Muhammad Hussain, 30, used photographs of broken items, receipts, boarding passes and police experiences that she discovered on-line, and altered a few of these with Paint and Microsoft Phrase purposes to help her claims.
On Friday (Jul 29) she pleaded responsible to 6 costs of dishonest, with 14 extra costs considered. She made a complete of 20 fraudulent claims between March 2016 and September 2019, of which 17 in payouts.
The businesses that fell sufferer to her scheme have been AXA Insurance coverage, AIG Asia Pacific Insurance coverage, NTUC Revenue Insurance coverage Co-operative, Aviva and FWD Singapore.
Siti Saliha was sentenced to 5 months’ jail and can begin serving her sentence in September, after being granted a deferment to settle her work and a mortgage she took out to make full restitution to the insurers.
FAKE CLAIM FOR DAMAGED LUGGAGE
The court docket heard that in September 2016, Siti Saliha made a visit to Kuala Lumpur together with her mom and two sisters. She purchased journey insurance coverage insurance policies from AXA and AIG for her household.
Through the journey, the household’s baggage, which was price about S$200, was broken whereas being retrieved from the airport’s baggage declare.
Siti Saliha recalled that earlier within the yr, she was capable of inflate the price of broken baggage in an insurance coverage declare with out offering any supporting receipts.
She had additionally been capable of make a separate insurance coverage declare for a chunk of baggage despite the fact that it was broken earlier than the journey.
“The accused felt that this was one other alternative to take advantage of the slack checks and balances in place for journey insurance coverage claims, and supposed to take action with out her household’s data,” mentioned Deputy Public Prosecutor Angela Ang.
She went on-line and located photographs of a broken Louis Vuitton baggage and receipt, in addition to a receipt for Tumi baggage, which she supposed to make use of to inflate the price of her broken baggage.
She used these paperwork to submit claims underneath her personal and her mom’s and sisters’ insurance coverage insurance policies. AXA and AIG disbursed a complete of S$750 and S$1,000 respectively for the 4 faux claims.
Having “examined the system”, Siti Saliha determined to make faux journey insurance coverage claims at any time when potential by making certain that she purchased insurance policies for herself and her household earlier than any journeys, mentioned Ms Ang.
She would often additionally purchase journey insurance coverage insurance policies for the only function of constructing a faux declare, regardless of there being no journey deliberate.
DOCTORED POLICE REPORT, BOARDING PASS
Whereas on a visit to Tokyo in April 2017, Siti Saliha by accident misplaced her pockets containing about S$5,000 and her iPhone. As her coverage didn’t cowl loss from private Negligence, she made a false police report in Tokyo that her belongings have been stolen.
She used the police report in a false declare to AXA. To get round a cap on the payout she may obtain, she additionally claimed that her laptop computer was stolen, which was not true. The insurer paid out S$2,288 to her.
Later that yr, Siti Saliha helped one in every of her sisters purchase journey insurance coverage for a visit to Krabi, and retrieved her sister’s used boarding go after she returned.
Siti Saliha then discovered samples of adjusting experiences and property irregularity experiences on-line, and amended them on her laptop to make reference to her sister’s laptop computer and baggage.
She additionally discovered outdated receipts for a laptop computer and baggage, and searched on-line for photographs of broken gadgets. She submitted these to MSIG collectively together with her sister’s boarding go, and acquired a payout of S$1,500.
Someday earlier than February 2019, Siti Saliha additionally purchased her mom a coverage for an alleged journey to Pekanbaru. The truth is, her mom had no such journey deliberate and the coverage was purchased to make a faux declare.
She made a false declare that her mom was robbed of S$600 in money and her iPhone, attaching a doctored pattern police report and a doctored photograph of a boarding go that she discovered on-line. She acquired S$1,415 from AXA for this.
She repeated this after her mom traveled to Jakarta in March 2019 and after her personal journey to Kuala Lumpur in April 2019, claiming that belongings have been stolen and submitting doctored police experiences when this was unfaithful.
She additionally volunteered to purchase journey insurance coverage for a good friend with whom she was touring to Kuala Lumpur in July 2019. She did so desiring to make faux claims for a theft on their return, and obtained a payout of virtually S$1,500 from AIG.
The offenses have been found after a number of the insurance coverage firms discovered Siti Saliha’s claims suspicious and carried out inner investigations. They then filed police experiences in opposition to her.
“REALLY QUITE IRONIC”
The prosecution sought 5 to seven months’ jail, highlighting the lengths that Siti Saliha went to, together with opening totally different electronic mail accounts to purchase the insurance policies with out arousing suspicion.
Protection counsel Yamuna Balakrishnan requested for a advantageous on the premise that her consumer got here from a poor monetary background and was the one individual offering for her relations, a few of whom have been unwell and never working.
Deputy Presiding District Decide Luke Tan mentioned it was “actually fairly ironic” that Siti Saliha highlighted dire monetary circumstances in her mitigation when her offenses arose from abroad journey.
He mentioned there was “completely no foundation” to not impose a jail time period, which was supported by the case regulation.
The punishment for dishonest is jail for up three years, a advantageous or each.