SINGAPORE: After successfully inflating the cost of her damaged luggage in an insurance declare, a woman embarked on a series of fraudulent vacation claims totalling greater than S$14, 000.
Siti Saliha Muhammad Hussain, 30, used photos of damaged goods, invoices, boarding passes and police reports that she found online, plus altered some of these along with Paint and Microsoft Word applications to aid her claims.
On Friday (Jul 29) she pleaded guilty to 6 charges of infidelity, with 14 more charges taken into consideration. She made a total associated with 20 fraudulent statements between March 2016 and September 2019, of which 17 led to payouts.
The businesses that fell sufferer to her scheme were AXA Insurance, AIG Asia Pacific Insurance plan, NTUC Income Insurance coverage Co-operative, Aviva plus FWD Singapore.
Siti Saliha was sentenced to 5 months’ jail and can start serving her sentence in Sept, after being given a deferment to settle her work along with a loan she had taken out to make complete restitution to the insurers.
FAKE CLAIM FOR DAMAGED LUGGAGE
The court heard that within September 2016, Siti Saliha made a trip to Kuala Lumpur with her mother and two sisters. She bought travel insurance policies from AXA and AIG for her family.
Throughout the trip, the family’s luggage, which was really worth about S$200, has been damaged while becoming retrieved from the airport’s baggage claim.
Siti Saliha remembered that earlier in the year, she could inflate the cost of damaged luggage in an insurance coverage claim without providing any supporting receipts.
She acquired also been able to make a separate insurance state for a piece of luggage even though it was damaged before the trip.
“The accused experienced that this was another opportunity to exploit the slack checks plus balances in place just for travel insurance claims, and intended to do so without her family’s information, ” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Angela Ang.
She went online and found photos of a damaged Louis Vuitton luggage plus receipt, as well as an invoice for Tumi baggage, which she designed to use to inflate the expense of her damaged baggage.
She utilized these documents to submit claims under her own and her mother’s and sisters’ insurance policies. AXA plus AIG disbursed a total of S$750 plus S$1, 000 correspondingly for the four artificial claims.
Getting “tested the system”, Siti Saliha made a decision to make fake travel insurance claims whenever possible simply by ensuring that she purchased policies for himself and her loved ones before any journeys, said Ms Ang.
She would occasionally also buy travel cover policies for the sole purpose of making a phony claim, despite generally there being no vacation planned.
DOCTORED POLICE REPORT, BOARDING PASS
During a trip to Tokyo in April 2017, Siti Saliha accidentally misplaced her pocket containing about S$5, 000 and her iPhone. As the girl policy did not cover loss from individual negligence, she made a false police report in Tokyo that her things were stolen.
She used the police report in a fake claim to AXA. To get around a cap on the payout she could receive, she furthermore claimed that her laptop was stolen, which was not true. The insurer paid out S$2, 288 to her.
Later that year, Siti Saliha helped one of her sisters buy travel insurance for a trip to Krabi, and retrieved her sister’s used boarding complete after she came back.
Siti Saliha then found samples of adjusting reports and property irregularity reviews online, and amended them on her personal computer to make reference to the girl sister’s laptop and luggage.
The lady also found old statements for a laptop and luggage, and searched online for pictures of damaged items. She submitted these to MSIG along with her sister’s boarding pass, and received a payout associated with S$1, 500.
Sometime before February 2019, Siti Saliha also bought her mother a policy to have an alleged trip to Pekanbaru. In fact , her mom had no this kind of trip planned as well as the policy was bought to make a fake state.
She produced a false claim that her mother has been robbed of S$600 in cash plus her iPhone, affixing a doctored trial police report and a doctored photo of the boarding pass that will she found online. The lady received S$1, 415 from AXA with this.
She repeated this after her mother travelled to Jakarta in March 2019 and after her very own trip to Kuala Lumpur in April 2019, claiming that belongings were stolen plus submitting doctored law enforcement reports when this was untrue.
The lady also volunteered to purchase travel insurance for a friend with whom the girl was travelling to Kuala Lumpur in This summer 2019. She did so intending to create fake claims for the theft on their come back, and got the payout of almost S$1, 500 through AIG.
The offences were uncovered after some of the insurance companies found Siti Saliha’s claims suspicious plus carried out internal investigations. They then filed police reports against the girl.
“REALLY VERY IRONIC”
The prosecution sought five to seven months’ jail, highlighting the lengths that Siti Saliha went to, including opening different e-mail accounts to buy the policies without arousing suspicion.
Defence counsel Yamuna Balakrishnan asked for a fine at the basis that the girl client came from an unhealthy financial background the only person giving for her family members, some of whom were sick and not working.
Deputy Presiding Region Judge Luke Bronze said it was “really quite ironic” that will Siti Saliha highlighted dire financial circumstances in her mitigation whenever her offences arose from overseas travel.
He mentioned there was “absolutely simply no basis” not to impose a jail term, which was supported with the case law.
The punishment regarding cheating is prison for up 3 years, a fine or each.