Woman jailed after cheating insurance firms of S$30,900 in payouts with fake baggage delay claims

[ASEAN NOW News]

File photo of luggage at the arrival baggage claim belt. 

 

SINGAPORE: Over about eight months, a woman cheated twelve insurance companies into giving her S$30,900 in payouts by making false claims for baggage delays, sometimes using the names of her husband and daughter in the ruses.

 

According to CNA, Wendy Tan Phaik Sim, 46, was sentenced to 14 months' jail on Wednesday (Nov 17). She pleaded guilty to five counts of cheating, with another fifteen charges taken into consideration.

 

The court heard that Tan was not in any financial need at the time of the offences.

 

She submitted the baggage delay claims between April 2018 and December 2018 and received payouts from twelve insurance companies: MSIG Insurance, United Overseas Insurance, AXA Insurance, FWD Singapore, AIG Asia Pacific Insurance, Great Eastern General Insurance, Aviva, Direct Asia Insurance, ERGO Insurance, NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative, Chubb Insurance and Sompo Insurance.

 

She would buy travel insurance with either her name, her husband's name, or her daughter's name in the certificate of insurance.

 

After this, she would use her daughter's computer to fabricate a baggage delay confirmation letter without the knowledge of her daughter or husband.

 

She did so using a genuine delay confirmation letter previously issued over a real baggage delay form that Cathay Pacific had issued to her over a Korea trip in November 2017, as well as a travel itinerary from that same trip.

 

She converted both documents from PDF to Microsoft Word so she could edit them and used them as a base for her fake claims.

 

Tan's versions of the claims would vary depending on whether she, her husband or her daughter had actually gone on trips. She also amended letterheads to affix logos of different airlines for her ruse.

 

Tan would complete the travel claim forms and submit the falsified delay confirmation letter along with the accompanying travel itinerary as supporting documentation to the insurance companies.

 

At times, the claims were for trips that neither she, her husband nor daughter had taken. On other occasions, they had gone overseas but did not experience any baggage delays. 

 

Tan's husband and daughter did not know that such fake claims were being made in their names and under their email accounts.

 

In instances where money was deposited into Tan's husband's bank account, he was unaware and did not withdraw the money.

 

Alert Insurance employee discovers fraud

 

The fraud was uncovered by a representative from Sompo Insurance. Tan had posed as her husband and submitted a baggage delay claim in his name to the firm.

 

She attached a baggage delay letter that was from Vietnam Airlines to the claim form, arousing the representative's suspicions as he knew that airline companies do not typically issue such letters.

 

He checked Sompo Insurance's internal records and discovered that similar insurance claims had been filed under both Tan's name and her husband's name.

 

After this, the representative checked with other insurers and airlines to find out if similar claims had been made.

 

He realised that at least twelve travel insurance claims had been filed under Tan's and her husband's names since 2017.

 

The airlines confirmed that they had not sent the baggage delay letters, and the representative lodged a police report. Other insurance companies soon followed with similar police reports.

 

Tan later made full restitution to all twelve victim companies, paying them between S$1,000 and S$3,600.

 

The prosecutor asked for between 14- and 17-months’ jail, noting that there was premeditation and sophistication in her crimes, with "carefully orchestrated efforts and steps to avoid detection".

 

Tan used a genuine baggage delay confirmation letter and travel itinerary as a template for her forgeries and bought insurance policies in her husband's and daughter's names to avoid raising suspicions.

 

The defence asked for leniency, saying Tan is the sole breadwinner of the family and has been caring for her husband who was diagnosed with renal failure in 2018.

 

She also donated a kidney to her husband, said the lawyer.

 

The prosecutor noted that the kidney operation occurred this year, and said it was unclear how her actions are to be excused given that she committed her offences in 2018.

 

For each charge of cheating, Tan could have been jailed up to three years and fined.