14 insurance fiddlers cuffed

Police have caught three life insurance agents who embezzled 52 million baht through policy buyers, plus 11 people who used fake Covid-19 test results to claim insurance payouts.

Central Investigation Agency (CIB) commissioner, Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, said the trio were arrested yesterday by Economic Crime Suppression Department (ECSD) officers.

They had collected money from customers of life guidelines but did not complete the money on to the insurance provider. This deprived their customers of their right to coverage under the guidelines they believed they had purchased. The tricked policyholders are estimated to have suffered damages totalling about 52 million baht, the particular CIB chief stated.

He or she also said ECSD police and authorities from the Office from the Insurance Commission (OIC) had examined statements during the spread of Covid-19 and found that 21 individuals had used fake Covid-19 results to every claim 50, 000-baht in insurance.

Eleven are actually charged with falsifying documents to claim insurance, he said.

Law enforcement will now also apply for court arrest justifies for the people who tempted the suspects directly into filing the fake Covid claims.

Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop said a police analysis found that those submitting the false Covid-19 test results every got 20, 000 baht per insurance claim. He said 30, 000 baht went to those who falsified the test results.

OIC mouthpiece secretary-general Chaiyut Mangsri and Pol Maj Gen Phutthidet Boonkraphue, the ECSD main, also attended the media briefing.

The National Health Security Workplace (NHSO), meanwhile, can be looking into 30, 1000 complaints of hostipal wards levying undue extra fees for Covid-19 treatment, despite receiving reimbursement via the government’s Ucep Covid programme.

“Only a third of the private hospitals under investigation provides produced evidence in order to justify the fees, ” said Doctor Jadej Thammatacharee, secretary-general of the NHSO, last night.

What this means is in the rest of the situations currently being probed, the particular hospitals will have to come back the money to the sufferers, he said.